


Smokey the Bear Has Nothing On You

by psychicScavenger



Series: Smokey the Bear Has Nothing On You [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Cats, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Fire, Firefighter Keith!, Gay Keith (Voltron), Implied Sexual Content, Kindergarten teacher Lance!, Major Character Injury, Modern Era, Original Character(s), Romantic Fluff, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-28
Updated: 2017-07-07
Packaged: 2018-09-27 13:16:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 50,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10022243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psychicScavenger/pseuds/psychicScavenger
Summary: Keith Kogane is on the Altea Fire Department and while volunteering for Altea Elementary's Safety day, he runs into his high school rival/crush Lance McClain.





	1. Are You A Firefighter? Cuz Theres A Fire In My Pants

**Author's Note:**

> So this was just an au idea I've had for a while and finally started writing. I had shown it to my friend and after she commented on it I thought maybe I should share it online. Also my friend came up with the title! Firefighter pickup lines felt appropriate for this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey so I edited chapter 1 of this thing cuz it was bothering me and then I realized why it was bothering me cuz of the formatting.

It was a bright sunny day with not a cloud in the sky. It was only September but the usual cool of Fall had not yet arrived, and the sun was only making the temperature more unbearable for some.

For Lance, he stepped outside and merely slipped on his shades, grinning despite the rising heat. It was only morning which was ridiculous and Lance was already starting to sweat. He didn’t let the heat get his mood down though, as he pushed the sleeves of his light blue sweater up to his elbows and watched happily as his Kindergartners participated in learning about safety with the firefighters that volunteered for the day.

 It was safety day at Altea Elementary for all the kindergartners to get a jumpstart on learning how to be safe in certain situations. They had volunteers from the towns fire department, police department, and even a couple of registered nurses from the hospital to come to the school and talk to the Kindergarten classes. The morning started with an assembly talking to the fire department about fire safety with some practice drills outside. Followed by safety tips from the police volunteers and tips for taking care of yourself from the nurses, reserved for the afternoon. Lance’s class had finished the assembly part of fire safety which Lance was so proud to hear his kids getting excited and participated with answering questions and even asking a few. Now, they were making their way outside so they can see the firetrucks and practice a few fire drills the firemen taught them. The class before them was just finishing up when Lance’s class came over and the kids eagerly sat in the grass listening to one of the firefighters. He was a tall buff guy, with a prosthetic arm, a stripe of white in his hair, and a scar across his nose. Lance couldn’t help but notice how attractive this guy was and Lance was glad he was wearing his shades to hide some of his staring. He was wearing a name tag that said Shiro in bright, cheery,handwriting that could only be Allura’s handwriting, Lance realized smirking. It was pinned to his shirt that had Altea Fire Department, printed on the back. 

 “So who can tell me what you’re supposed to do if you’re on fire?” Shiro asked his kids and Lance watched with pride as all of his kids raised their hands eager to answer the question. 

Shiro picked one of his kids, his nephew, Manny, who smiled, showing off his missing tooth as he answered; “Stop, drop and roll.” He grinned. Shiro nodded. 

 “Very good! My buddy, Keith here, is going to show you guys how to do so. Everyone watch ok?” Shiro instructed as he stepped to the side and a smaller man stepped up. 

Lance’s eyes widened considerably behind his sunglasses as he noticed this man was Keith, his “rival” from high school. He had only talked to Keith a couple of times in high school since his good friends Hunk and Pidge, were friends with him, but the two never got along, mostly because of Lance doing everything he could to irritate Keith. 

Lance gave Keith a once over, he still had the mullet styled hair, which looked incredibly soft, Lance noted. Keith wore the same expression but now was less of a scowl and more of a deadpan expression. Like the guy didn’t get much sleep anymore. Overall, Keith still looked like his high school self, although a bit more muscular judging by his arms which Lance chewed his lip, wondering what they would feel like wrapped around him. Lance stiffened as he shoved those thoughts away as he remembered where he was and how now was not the time for his bisexual ass to pop out and say hello. Instead, he thought back to their days in high school when Lance wasn’t aware that his irritation of even seeing Keith, wasn’t actually feelings of loathing or agitation but actually a crush that Lance hadn’t figured out yet. He wasn’t aware he was attracted to guys at all till an experience back in college and his first thought was; ‘Oh shit I might be into guys’ right as he was dry humping against a guy in a club. 

Lance shook his head to focus on the demonstration and watched amusedly as Keith did an awkward show of stopping and dropping to the ground which his class giggled at considering Keith was obviously uncomfortable with the attention and merely dropped like all the life had been taken from him, only to roll away and continue rolling despite Shiro’s calls of getting him to come back. 

Lance watched as Keith rolled another good ten feet away only to spring back up and walk away waving bye to Shiro, who sighed and turned back to the kids who had dissolved into giggling fits.

“Well you don’t have to be that dramatic about it like Keith, but why don’t we show him how its done?” Shiro offered and his class cheered, eager to do the physical activity. 

Lance watched as his kids lined up beside the gym mats they had laid out in the shade with two other firefighters instructing their drills. The firetrucks were parked next to the buses, by the bus entrance and Lance remembered how excited the kids were at the idea of seeing a firetruck up close. 

With his class occupied, Lance turned to see Keith leaning against the side of one firetruck watching. Lance decided to go over and say hey, partially hoping that maybe Keith wouldn’t remember him that well. 

                                                                                            ___________________________________

Keith looked up and swore quietly under his breath, which Shiro who was drinking a bit of water murmured a curious hmm and glanced in the direction Keith was facing. The teacher from the class they just demonstrated for was coming over and he looked at Keith’s tinted face smirking knowingly.

 “Are you glad I dragged you into coming now?” Shiro teased. 

The younger man was really adamant about not going to the safety assembly for the school but Shiro being Shiro roped him into it. Mainly by telling Keith he’ll have to stay and clean the trucks when they got back from goofing off with kids, and eating free snacks. Keith agreed a little bit after, only because he had cleaned the trucks the previous two times and was not going to do it again even though he liked doing it. Keith merely shook his head, 

“No, I know this guy. We went to high school together.” He said remembering Lance as the obnoxious, loud guy who flirted with all the girls, was friends with Pidge and Hunk, and clearly hated him to the core. 

He often would insult Keith from his hair to what he wore, to picking fights, and trying to out perform him at any physical activity or test. 

Keith wasn’t innocent either as he also started some fights mostly just to mess with Lance because despite how annoying the guy was, Keith had a small crush on him for some reason. He knew from a younger age, maybe during his middle school years, that he wasn’t heterosexual. He often had girls who would flirt and ask him out all throughout high school, which sometimes set off Lance, even though Keith told all of them no since he would get a sickening feeling in his gut. It wasn’t till he had his first kiss with a dude in his art class after school when they were smoking against the building that he realized he liked dudes. 

And seeing Lance now was bringing all those memories back, Keith realized confused. 

He hasn’t seen or heard from this guy in years, he didn’t talk to anyone from high school, he drifted from Pidge and Hunk after graduation and was focused on leaving and exploring and getting out that he left without saying good bye to anyone. After all, he had no-one to stay in touch with. 

Keith watched Lance saunter up to him and Shiro, watching the way Lance’s hips swayed easily like he was in constant rhythm to some music and the way his skin was still clear and perfect like it had been throughout high-school. Keith remembered all the times he wanted to touch it to see if his skin was as soft and smooth as it looked. His dark, brunette hair was still short but neater and styled as he now probably had to look professional and not sloppy for his job. Still, Keith tried to remember what Lance’s locks looked like carefree and mussed up as they used to be years ago. Keith realized faintly he was trying to picture Lance with messy bedhead, preferably after waking up in his bed…

 He cleared his throat quickly when Lance walked up all smiles, but what took Keith’s breath away was when Lance removed his sunglasses and his deep blue eyes lit up with recognition and joy, that Keith was sure any minute they would need the defibrillator from the truck to keep his heartbeat in check. 

 “Hey man, hows it going? I haven’t heard anything about you since high school.” Lance said easily. 

Keith thought he saw a faint blush blossom on Lance’s dark skin and felt a rising one of his own appear from noticing how beautiful Lance was up close. 

 “U-uh good. I’m good I mean. You?” Keith asked and inwardly cringed at his terrible social skills. This is why you shouldn’t have lived in a desert for two years, he scolded himself. 

 Lance seemed to pay no mind or notice Keith’s lack of sociability and merely nodded at Shiro. 

“Hey you guys were great with the demonstration earlier! My kids really enjoyed it!” He nodded back to his students who were all crawling now to practice what to do when theres smoke in the air. 

Keith looked stupefied at the kids for a second and back at Lance, surprise lacing his voice as he asked, “You’re a teacher here?” 

 Lance frowned confused by the tone and nodded. “Yeah I am. And you’re a firefighter now which, thats cool.” He replied unsure. Actually it was more than cool, Lance found it incredibly hot, no pun intended.

 Shiro glanced at the both of them curious, yet feeling intense second hand embarrassment for them when he rested a hand on Keith’s shoulder hoping to help his friend a little bit. 

“Yep, Keith’s one of our top firemen on the crew. Saved dozens of lives actually.” he winked when Keith glanced back at him and blushed when Lance’s interest focused solely on him.

“Really? Thats so cool! How long have you been a fireman?” Lance asked curious. Keith merely shrugged hoping to seem nonchalant but he was practically dying on the inside from the positive attention. 

“About a year now. Shiro’s being modest though, he saved over dozens of lives and won the Hero of the Month award this past June.” Keith stated and felt like kicking himself when Lance directed his attention to Shiro, eyes practically sparkling. 

“Incredible! I remember you now, Takashi Shirogane, you were in the paper!” Lance pointed out which made Shiro blush now and raise his prosthetic hand in a placating manner. 

“Please its nothing really. I was just doing my job. Teaching though, thats quite a job itself. Your class was more excited than the others.” Shiro pointed out, gesturing to the kids who were all eagerly looking at the other firetruck and listening to another fireman point out various parts and equipment they keep on it. 

Lance glanced back at them fondly which made Keith smile seeing how amused and happy he looked. Ho obviously loved his job, which brought butterflies to Keith’s stomach.

“Yeah I guess its a tough job keeping them in check sometimes, but they’re worth it. I know they’ve been excited about safety day for weeks. I’m glad you guys could take time to do this.” Lance looked grateful as he smiled at Keith which made him stutter and try to come up with a response. Luckily Shiro beat him to it. 

“We enjoy doing it! I should get going, I think its time for the best part of safety day, the stickers!” Shiro grinned as he held up a roll of stickers shaped like a fire fighters badge with Jr. Firefighter written on them and headed towards the kids, whos faces lit up seeing him. Keith chuckled watching him get down on the kids level and start handing them out to eager hands.

“Sooo other than being a courageous fireman, what else you doing these days?” Lance teased, smiling. He leaned up against the truck next to Keith facing him as he crossed his arms like him as well. 

Keith glanced down at his feet trying to get his breathing under control before he could look at Lance again, which his piercing blues didn’t make it easier. Then again, from what he remembered nothing was easy when it came to Lance, he recalled fondly. He glanced away and merely shrugged.

“Not much else honestly. I just do this, fight some fires, maintenance, go on emergency calls and go home. My life’s not really all that exciting as Shiro makes it out to be. I’m sure yours is though.” Keith stated. Lance laughed and shook his head. 

“Same here for me. I enjoy working with these kids and it gets sad every year when they move up to the next level but its mostly routine now. I still talk to Pidge and Hunk from high school which helps. They usually keep me on my toes with their work, them being engineers and all.” Lance stated sounding like a proud mother of her children which Keith snorted. 

 “That’s cool to hear. I haven’t spoken to them since high school.” Keith admitted. 

“They’re both in this town as well. Pidge is a bit farther away, working for some side company of NASA but Hunk’s in the area! You should come hang out sometime.” Lance suggested wiggling his eyebrows making Keith chuckle. 

“Alright maybe I will.” He smirked seeing the blush on Lance’s face. 

“Great! Well, I gotta go herd the little ones in. I’ll see you around?” Lance asked. He was biting his lip and looked a little nervous which made Keith’s heart melt. he smiled back as he nodded. 

“See you around.” And felt his heart drop as Lance smiled and waved before heading over to his class and asking them to line up. 

Keith watched with a smile as the kids eagerly started showing Lance their stickers, wanting his attention which Lance laughed and told them how great their behavior has been and to keep it up the rest of the day. As the kids lined up single file, Lance once again looked back at Keith and waved good bye, catching the attention of one student, his nephew Manny, who glanced at the fireman and back to his uncles face. 

“Uncle Lance are you blushing?” Manny asked, his nose twisting in a curious way.

“Manny! What, no, Im not! And I told you at school its Mr. McClain! You can’t call me Lance at school its not professional and the other kids will want to do it too! Now c’mon we need to get inside!” 

Lance ignored his nephews insistent comments and franticly escorted the 5 year old back inside with one last glance at Keith, who was now talking to Shiro, and sighed. Safety day was always a fun day and this years was even better. 

                                                                                       ___________________________________

Keith watched Lance, noticing how cute Lance was fretting over one of the kids, when he barely registered what Shiro was saying. 

“Sorry, what?” Keith asked, now looking at Shiro who had a smug expression while leaning against the truck. 

“I said you’re welcome considering you should say: ‘Thank you Shiro for making me attend this safety assembly for the children and helped me score a cute teacher’s number’” Shiro chuckled while Keith rolled his eyes and threw an empty water bottle at him. 

“I didn’t get his number Shiro! I just met him after not seeing the guy since high school.” Keith replied ignoring the look of surprise and then pity. 

“You mean to tell me all my wingman efforts just went to waste like that?” Shiro asked in disbelief which made Keith turn to him questioning and also slightly hurt. 

Shiro smiled gently as he rested a hand on Keith’s shoulder. 

“Kidding. Hey you were yourself and thats what mattered right? He seemed interested, he was blushing just as much as you were.” Shiro pointed out. He started loading up the truck with their equipment they had put out to show the kids and gestured for Keith to help wind up the hose and strap it on top of the truck. 

“I’m not sure. During high school, we constantly fought so what if he’s still slightly resentful of me for some weird reason?” Keith wondered aloud. 

“Why would he be resentful of you?” 

“Who knows, he was pretty weird in high school.” Keith shrugged hopping down after the hose was secured. 

“Says the guy who watches cryptid documentaries on aliens and Bigfoot.” Shiro argues, one of his eyebrows raised. 

“Shut up Shiro. And its aliens and Mothman! Who even cares about Bigfoot anymore?” Keith sighed climbing into the truck and sitting in the passenger seat while Shiro got in the drivers spot. 

“Well if you asked Lance out, maybe he might be interested in hearing about Mothman.” Shiro countered, shrugging when Keith just glared at him. As they backed out of the school parking lot, Keith wondered what a date would be like with Lance and sighed a little at the idea. 

He then remembered Shiro next to him and promptly threw a balled up paper from one of he many notepads in the truck, at him, who was barely containing his laughter. 

“You got it bad, don’t you?” Shiro asked as they drove through the streets. Keith watched as the town went by and thought about Lance’s face, particularly his blue eyes, and groaned, his forehead hitting the window. 

“You have no idea.” 


	2. Boy I Want to Climb You Like A Ladder

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith meets Lance again but not exactly how he imagined, also Manny is a lil shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well damn didn't think this would get this many hits actually. Thank you to those for reading and giving me kudos!

 

Interestingly enough for Keith, he ran into Lance sooner than he thought he would. 

The station had gotten an emergency call from the elementary school about two days after their safety day. Thankfully, it was just a kid stuck in a tree and nothing too serious so Keith tagged along with Shiro as they drove their truck, siren blaring mostly to get through traffic. Once they reached the school, Keith pointed out the noticeable gathering by the edge of the playground which Shiro nodded and maneuvered the truck towards the edge of the lawn and they both rushed out. A tall dark skin woman with white hair ran up to meet them, her blue eyes showing concern as she shook Shiro’s hand.

“Hello I’m Allura, the principal of this school. I was the one who made the phone call. We tried using one of the janitors ladders but it was too short. Apparently the student wandered off from his class and somehow managed to climb one of the huge oaks by the edge of the playground.” Allura explained. Shiro nodded.

“No problem. We’ll do everything we can to help.” he smiled reassuringly which seemed to appease Allura enough.

Shiro went to grab the ladder from the back with Keith turning to help him only he chose to gaze back at the crowd trying to locate the issue. As he looked, Keith noticed a familiar mop of brunette hair with a lean frame and panic coursed through him as he saw Lance’s worried gaze glance in his direction.

Rushing towards him, Keith ignored both the cries of the crowd as well as Shiro’s confused yells, as his eyes locked with Lance’s only, It wasn’t till he reached Lance, Keith had realized he had ditched Shiro back at the truck with the ladder.

“Keith! You’re here!” Lance marveled with surprise, yet his gaze and body language showed no signs of excitement at the moment. Keith reached up putting a hand gently on Lance’s arm, his eyebrows drawn in worry as he gazed at him.

“Lance are you okay?” he asked simply.

Lance merely shook his head and pointed towards a tree they were all standing around and Keith looked up and up till his neck was craned back and saw a little boy who resembled Lance in some way stuck up in a high branch about 40 feet off the ground. Keith frowned wondering how the hell a small kid like him could’ve climbed so high.

“My nephew he-it was during recess and he got away from the class and decided to climb the tree and now he can’t get down!” Lance cried, Keith noticed his bottom lip trembling and how he was biting it to hold back his worry.

“Hey everything is going to be alright, we’ll get him down. He’s going to be okay.” Keith soothed patting Lance’s arms gently while Lance took a deep breath and exhaled trying to visibly calm himself. 

“Thank you, I mean I don’t know why he did this! Manny doesn’t even climb trees, he’s scared of heights! We’ve been telling him how dangerous it is since he started walking!” Lance exclaimed as he gazed back at Manny. Keith looked up also, to see the distinct fear in the little kids eyes mixed with some regret. Keith sighed before looking up at him and yelling up to him.

“Hang on tight Manny! We’re gonna help you! Just don’t look down okay?”

Manny nodded and proceeded to look everywhere else but down at the ground and Keith turned to see Allura with Shiro, walking back with the ladder which Keith felt slight regret for neglecting his duties. He opened his mouth to apologize to Shiro who merely smiled and shook his head, ‘don’t worry about it’ he implied.

“Keith, help me set up this ladder so you can climb it and help him down.” Keith nodded following Shiro’s orders, as they carefully propped the ladder and used the extender on it to move it up some to give Keith enough height to get to Manny.

“Okay I’ll be down here holding it steady, you go up there and grab the kid. Be careful Keith.” Shiro warned his eyes displaying a small amount of concern, probably for Manny. Keith nodded and glanced back for a second at Lance who looked at him with worry before he confidently hoisted himself up and began climbing. After about a minute or two Keith reached the top where Manny was hanging out, still trying his hardest to look everywhere but down.

Seriously, how did a small kid like him climb up so high?

Keith looked over at Manny who was clenching the tree branch with a death grip and obviously too afraid to move.

“You okay?” He asked gently which Manny nodded his head at first till he mistakenly looked down, his eyes grew big like saucers and he comically shook his head. Keith chuckled finding the kid a little endearing even though the situation was indeed pretty serious.

“Here, try to scoot towards me and I’m going to help you down, alright?” Keith asked which Manny nodded and began carefully sliding himself towards Keith and the main trunk of he tree.

“That’s it, you’re doing good. Just keep looking at me, you’re doing fine.” Keith encouraged.

Manny was finally close enough for Keith to lean over slightly and hoist the shaking five year old into his arms and tug him close against his side.

“It’s okay, I got you. Are you alright?” He whispered to which Manny ducked his head and nodded, probably a little embarrassed. Keith could practically feel the relief flowing from the little kid. However, they were still up high so they weren’t necessarily out of the woods yet.

“Impressive climb but you probably shouldn’t do anymore stuff like this from now on. Your uncle down there is pretty worried about you.” Keith said as he began climbing down carefully using one arm to hold on to Manny and the other to grip the rungs as he went down.

Once he was on the last rung cheers erupted from the kids and a few of the teachers, as Keith set Manny down. Manny, with a bright smile on his face, ran towards Lance who swept him up in a big hug, crushing the kid to his chest and pressing kisses to his forehead.

“Kid, don’t ever scare me like that again! What if something had happened! You would’ve been stuck in a tree and have to live like a monkey for the rest of your life! I’d be feeding you bananas everyday!” Lance teased with Manny laughing as his hair was ruffled and pushed Lance away asking his uncle to stop teasing him.

Lance laughed softly but held Manny’s gaze as he spoke softly, “Don’t wander off like that again please.”

Manny smiled and nodded. “I won’t.” he promised.

“Good, cause your mama would kill me.” Lance joked as he put Manny down and turned to Keith with relief and gratitude shining in his eyes.

“Thank you so much dude. I don’t know how I can repay you!”

Keith felt his face warming up as he struggled to use words properly, when Shiro popped up messing with the ladder and nudges him. Keith scowled back at Shiro who just shrugged and smirked before taking the ladder and walking back to the truck with Allura who was conversing with him eagerly, probably expressing her gratitude as well.

The crowd seemed to disperse then with Lance sending Manny away as well, who seemed disappointed about not getting to play more with the cool firefighters, his words of course. Lance blushing, sputtered out “Y-You go inside right now little man! You’ve played enough today! We still have a phone call with your mom to talk too.” Lance scolded. Manny pouted but as soon as he heard the word ‘mom’ Manny instantly straightened up and scurried back inside, ignoring the teasing looks Lance and another teacher shared. Once the kids and everyone else was inside, Lance snorted at his nephews antics before turning to face Keith feeling a wave of shyness overcome him.

The adoration on Lances face was too much for Keith to handle making his face feel warmer.

“Thank you seriously. I was really scared something would happen to that kid.” Lance chuckles gazing back at Keith again. Keith waved his hand trying to be casual.

“Oh uh, yeah I mean you know its a days wo-I mean all in a days du-work I mean.” Jesus christ what the hell, Keith thought to himself. Where am I, in middle school? he sighed miserably.

He awkwardly rubbed his face feeling embarrassment wash over him while Lance continued to stand there, fidgeting with his fingers.

“So, um..would you be against me taking you to dinner as a token of my gratitude? Or is that too weird?” Lance added quickly uncertain.

Keith felt everything stop as he analyzed Lance’s question. Repeating it in his head, over and over. Is he asking me out? Keith wondered surprised but as he saw Lance grow more and more nervous and slightly dejected Keith stupidly remembered he hadn’t responded yet.

“No, no that would be um, that’d be great.” Keith nods, his head moving rapidly. Lance grins and Keith swore to himself feeling like Lance could kill him with just another one of his dazzling smiles.

“Great! Here’s my number just text me and I’ll give you the details!” Lance grinned as he pulled out a pen from his pocket and grabbed Keith’s arm to write on. With Lance touching him and leaning in close, Keith knew right then and there he would definitely need the defibrillator to restart his damn heart after this. 

“There! So yeah ju-just text me and we can plan something. That cool?” Lance asked shyly. Keith nods not trusting his voice as Lance grins before walking away. Keith watched amused as he turned around, waving one last time before Keith waved back and began to head back over to the truck where Shiro was patiently waiting.

After Keith climbed in and finished buckling up he leaned back into the seat mentally exhausted as Shiro looked him up and down.

“Soo…”

“Shut it Takashi.” Keith muttered and watched as they drove off and headed through the town again.

As they paused at a red light, Keith glanced down at Lance’s number which he had written in scrawly handwriting on his left arm. Keith ran a finger over it, enjoying the tingle left behind when Lance wrote it. It occurred to Keith then, that he got Lance McClain’s number and promptly froze in his seat.

“Oh my god Shiro.”

“What Keith?”

“I got a hot guys number.” Keith breathed stunned and reached over to punch Shiro who had burst into a laughing fit right after.

                                                                                ___________________________________

Lance was not doing any better. He paused outside his classroom realizing he gave Keith his number and groans leaning against the wall. He, Lance McClain, gave moody, emo, mullet wearing, Keith Kogane, his phone number to text him. **FOR A DATE.**

Ok well technically he didn’t say date but it was implied. Or maybe when Keith texts, he should be more obvious he meant it as a date. 

But what if he didn’t want to go after that, Lance wondered disappointed.  After all, he doesn’t even know if Keith likes guys. Plus there was their issues with each other in the past, he thought annoyed with himself. Lance sighed putting his head in his hands. God, he needed to stop acting like an angsty teenager, he was supposed to be done with this, he thought miserably.

“Are you thinking about that firefighter Uncle Lance?” a tiny voice popped up beside Lance making him jump about three feet and no he did not yelp like a little girl, shut up.

“Manny! I told you not to sneak up on others like that! It’s rude! Also its Mr. McClain, not Uncle Lance.” Lance pleaded exasperated.

Manny just wrinkled his nose and gave him a look that always made Lance wonder if he was being judged, when Manny shrugged.

“Just seemed like you were thinking about the firefighter. Are you sure you don’t like him?” Manny asked with a heavy emphasis on the ‘sure’. Lance stared at Manny unamused.

“You are a little sneak sneak. Wait till I tell your mother about your hooligan behavior today.” Lance pounced on Manny and began giving the kid a noogie which made him spasm and laugh as he tried wiggling out of his uncles grip.

“Uncle Lance stop! It tickles!” he giggled making Lance smile as he put him back down and ruffled his hair.

“Ok, ok, lets head back in. The others missed you, I’m sure. And its Mr. McClain.” Lance chided and herded Manny inside the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed!


	3. You Need a Warning Sign For Being Too Hot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Manny is still a lil shit but he's Lance's lil shit. Also we meet Lance's sister and Blue!

“Okay Manny, ready to go?” Lance called over his shoulder. 

He had finished putting all the kids homework and class assignments in his messenger bag for grading later. Manny usually stayed with him after school since his mom, Lance’s sister, was still usually working at this hour, with her busy lawyer career and all. 

“I’m ready!” Manny called placing the last of the action figure toys he was playing with, in the toy chest and closing the lid.

They exited the classroom, Lance locking the door for tomorrow and they set off to the parking lot. Manny took Lance’s hand which Lance gripped gently as they walked, enjoying the warm sunshine.

“Did Mama sound really mad when you spoke to her?” Manny asked unsure.

Lance’s eyebrows popped up in surprise and then he smiled reassuringly, smoothing down Manny’s curly hair.

“Nah, she was just worried at first. She’ll probably give you a talk though when you get home. And then she’ll hug you, after all what matters is you’re safe and you probably wont be climbing trees again will you?” Lance prompted.

When Manny gave no answer, he glanced at the boy suspicious then turned to Manny giving him the stink eye.

“WILL YOU?” Manny sighed unimpressed.

“I won’t,” he grumbled.

Lance straightened up again smiling.

“Good! You nearly gave me a heart attack today!” Manny smiled wickedly as an idea came to him.

“Well then that firefighter that saved me would’ve saved you too! They have that heart machine in their truck remember?” Manny teased as he noticed his uncles face becoming redder. Lance squinted down at his nephew who had a shit eating grin on his face.

“You like him don’t you Uncle Lance?” Lance paused not expecting that. He glanced down at the little turd for a nephew and narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

“You think you’re so slick don’t you?” Lance unlocked his car and began helping Manny into the car seat in the back, strapping him in and buckling all the right places. Manny merely nodded.

“Yea I can be!” He chirped happily.

Lance merely smiled back at him before he made his way into the drivers seat.

“Plus he’s pretty strong too Uncle Lance! I bet he works out, like Papa!”

Lance blushed remembering Keith’s arms and how strong they looked. The same fantasy of having them wrapped around Lance while they engaged in more intimate activities sprang to mind which Lance quickly banished those thoughts, remembering Manny was with him.

And Manny was wayyy too young for the birds and the bees talk. Lance was gonna let his sister deal with that, hes her kid.

“Manny you weigh like forty pounds. Anybody can pick you up.” Lance reasoned pulling out of the parking lot and heading to his apartment.

“I still think you like him.” Manny replied, again with a heavy emphasis on the word like. Lance groaned regretting allowing Manny to watch a Spongebob marathon, even though he had wanted to as well.

“I’m taking away your Spongebob privileges!” Lance argued smirking back at Manny when he gasped in horror. The two continued to bicker playfully till they reached Lance’s unfortunate apartment building.

It was a dirty gray building that obviously hadn’t been looked after. Grey bricks, covered in dirt and soot along with peeling paint in some areas, were the obvious signs of disrepair. Some of the windows were missing, thankfully they were only empty apartments as the landlord wouldn’t rent those apartments to anyone. Lance frowned, hoping the landlord would get the windows replaced before it started getting cold. Lance took Manny’s hand and after a friendly little race to the fourth floor, Lance unlocked his door and after they walked in, Lance tried to slide in the sliding lock(the seventh lock he installed this year)only for it to break off the door.

“Ugh seriously?” Lance complained as he inspected the bit of wall that came off with the lock. Manny glanced at the number of broken locks on his uncles door and wrinkled his nose.

“Uncle Lance you may need a new lock.” He pointed out. Lance sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, messing up all his hard work from his morning routine.

“Yep it sure looks like it. But thats why I have a door lock!” Lance exclaimed!

He happily turned the lock on the doorknob and closed the door, only for the door to swing back against the wall. Manny glanced back at his uncle who scratched his head only to grab the trashcan he kept in the hallway and pressed it against the door after closing it shut again. The door stayed firmly in place, making Lance swivel towards Manny with pride.

“There we go! See Manny, there’s always a solution!” Lance stated proudly.

“More like theres always a trashcan. And we’re standing in one.” Manny solemnly replied.

Lance glared at the sassy small child before his face broke out in a wide smile as a certain fluffy, grey cat walked in with a bell like meow before sitting next to Manny waiting for her daily pat on the head which Manny happily obliged. 

“There’s my beautiful daughter! My pride, my kin!” Lance cried as Blue looked up at him with her big blue eyes and blinked. Lance crossed the room and picked her up, scratching her ears as she purred, her tail flicking back and forth. Manny giggled.

“You don’t think my apartments a trashcan do you Blue? You love it here, yes you do.” Lance cooed while Manny just rolled his eyes and placed his backpack on the couch grabbing the remote and flicking the TV on.

“You’re so weird.” He muttered shaking his head.

Lance merely smirked as he placed Blue back on the floor and crept up behind Manny. With a battle cry, Lance put Manny in a light headlock and gave him another noogie despite Manny’s protests.

“You wanna talk about weird, who puts ice in their cereal you little monster? What are you, a cereal killer?” Lance smiled as his nephew just giggled, happy that joke works on little kids, considering Hunk was ready to toss him flat on his ass when he relayed the joke to him the other day.

After goofing off, Lance got up and spread the kids assignments on his kitchen table while Manny watched cartoons and played with Blue until he was hungry and was given a snack.

After Lance’s insistence for Manny to eat at the table and not on the couch like a hooligan(Lance absolutely hated ants), Manny sat at the table with his snack, helping Lance grade some of the papers, which was mostly just putting the stickers on the homework. Manny may have also bribed his uncle to let him have the super cool rocket sticker that says ‘You’re out of this World!’ to put on his own paper.

It was a peaceful late afternoon as usual, the TV on as background noise, Blue curled up on an old newspaper in the sunlight, and Lance spending time with his nephew. He tried to not pick favorites with his students since they were all wonderful and great kids, but since finding out Manny was going to be in his kindergarten class he tended to favor him more attention wise. He remained fair of course and always gave other kids attention as well but usually sometimes Lance would find himself watching over Manny during the day making sure he was alright.

After today’s episode, Lance probably would be increasing his focus on Manny. The kid just had a knack for trouble.

Lance passed Manny another paper and smiled as Manny grabbed a sticker and carefully stuck it on the paper with such precision, his small tongue poking out between his lips. Lance chuckled and got up to feed Blue when he heard a soft, quick knock on his door. Manny grinned and ran to the door ignoring Lance’s “Ask who it is first!” and moving the trashcan allowing the door to swing open revealing his mom.

Lance’s older sister Vanessa greeted Manny warmly, picking him up and kissing him on the cheek to which he hugged his moms neck as she walked in, glancing curiously at the trashcan that had been holding the door closed.

Vanessa was a big time lawyer who worked in the city about a forty five minute drive away and worked alot. She was the closest sibling to Lance as she lived about twenty minutes away from his place and constantly asked Lance to watch over Manny, which he didn’t mind knowing how busy she was and her husband, Carlos, who was on duty training with the Marines.

“So should I even ask about today? Do we need to go over some more ground rules?” She asked looking at Lance and back at Manny who ducked his head.

Lance felt a little bad for the kid and tried to shoulder the blame.

“I’m so sorry Vanessa, I should have been watching him more carefully! I was distracted by the girls who wanted to play jump rope and then-”

“Lance, breathe. It's okay, I’m not angry.” Vanessa stated chuckling a little at Lance’s surprised expression.

“These things happen. It’s not your fault. We’re still going to have a little chat about climbing trees when we get home but thank you Lance. I appreciate all you’ve done to help.” Vanessa mentioned, brushing Manny’s hair back and kissing him as Manny scrunched his face in disgust, whining about cooties. 

Lance smirks teasingly as he glances back at Vanessa challenging.

“You accepted my kisses earlier after those firemen saved you from that tree.” He said proudly as Vanessa mockingly expresses her shock at the betrayal of her own son. 

“You’ll let Uncle Lance kiss you but not your Mama? What has the world come to?” Vanessa joked as Manny rolls his eyes and scrambles down from her hold.

Lance watched as Manny runs around collecting his things, noticing Manny really makes himself home at his place, with his stuff scattered around when Vanessa places a hand on his arm getting his attention.

“Lance real talk though, sibling to sibling, when are you getting a real apartment?” She asks, worry creasing her frown.

Lance sighs knowing where this conversation was going again as he stepped closer, so Manny couldn't hear their conversation. Thankfully the kid was distracted with saying goodbye to Blue, so Lance turns around facing Vanessa, his eyebrows furrowed.

“Look, the rent is cheap and it’s also a decent driving distance to work, it saves me gas. So what if a few things break here and there?” Lance shrugs.

Vanessa shook her head, her short, asymmetrical faux-hawk waving in her face till she tucked a strand behind her ear.

“Lance I’m just worried. What if someone breaks in here one day? Or worse what if something happens to this whole building? I wouldn’t be surprised if a single gust of wind blows the whole thing down. You should really talk to the other residents...maybe get some representation. My firm can probably get you guys a good settlement.” Vanessa stated using her plotting voice that reminded Lance of Yzma from Emperor’s New Groove a little bit. Lance rolled his eyes, scoffing.

“Vanessa theres signs that tell us what to do and what not to use. Like that handrail thats dangerously wobbly? Theres like fifty signs telling us not to lean on it! I’ll be fine. I’m looking for a new place as we speak, and I just haven’t found one in my price range yet.” Lance sighs, rubbing his eyes. Vanessa pats his back comfortingly as she calls Manny over and prepares to leave.

“Well, we always have room in our home if you need somewhere. But please find someplace else! Mama and Papa wouldn’t stand for you to live like this, remember that.” She warned. Lance shuddered knowing how well his Mama would express her frustration and concern if she were to find out what kind of shit hole Lance was living in. He just nods his head and sighs as he leans in for a hug before he drops down to Manny’s level to give him one as well.

“Goodbye you little gremlin. Remember Vanessa, don’t feed this thing after midnight.” Lance laughed as he dodged a swing from his sisters purse as she yelled at him to not call her child a gremlin. Manny merely laughed at their antics.

“Bye big ears!” Manny cheers and runs away as Lance gapes at him in shock.

“Get out of my apartment you filthy heathens! Love you both, good bye!” Lance calls as Vanessa laughs and takes Manny’s hand as they exit the hallway.

Lance props himself against the door and decides he should head out for another lock, but was interrupted by a message alert from his phone. Curious, Lance heads over to his bag and sees he has a message from a new number.

‘Hey it’s Keith, you gave me your number today. Did you still want to meet up, what time and date are you thinking?’

Lance smiles as he stared at the word date and eagerly began to type back.

                                                                                             _______________________________

Vanessa had finished buckling Manny in his car-seat when she curiously looked at her son. 

“Manny, you’re a smart boy. I still don’t understand why you would decide to climb a tree like that?” She asked her eyes narrowing.

Manny looked down at the floorboards with a guilty expression on his face. Vanessa leaned in, trying to catch his eye. 

“Manuel..” She mumbled in a warning tone. Manny looked up and gave her an honest response. 

“I wanted Uncle Lance to talk to the fireman more. They seemed to like-like each other,” he ducked his head ashamed.

Vanessa stared in surprise before letting out a snort and getting in the drivers seat. As she turned her car on and backed out of the space, she gave Manny an interested look.

“So tell me about this fireman, what does he look like?” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the lack of Keith I will make up for that next chapter ;) Also these boys having cats is what started this whole au in the first place. I blame the cats.


	4. Your Hosebed or Mine?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We find out Keith's background (for this au) a bit more and also Shiro takes selfies. :P

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been feeling a little down lately so I thought I'd update this for all ya! Cuz nothing makes me happier than cheering up others sometimes! Also, thank you for the sweet comments and kudos!!! I'm so happy ya'll like Manny so much! I didn't know if anyone would actually enjoy this but I'm so glad people do! Anyways, happy reading!

The sounds of old rock music flowed through the tiny radio in the corner of the station. Keith didn’t pay much attention to the whiny lyrics and sounds as his thoughts were occupied by a certain blue eyed Cuban he'd been daydreaming about for the past few days. 

Keith smiled lightly to himself as he remembered the dumb meme Lance had sent him this morning.

Lance may have matured (and he was using that term loosely) in some areas, like his broad shoulders from all those years being on the swim team and narrow hips, but Lance was still the obnoxious loud-mouth Keith had a crush on. Only now, his crush was back and bigger than before.

They had been texting for the past two days, just talking about how their days were, if anything interesting happened, and sometimes Lance would tell Keith stories about something, he, Pidge, and Hunk had done which Keith found himself laughing along to those stories with Lance.

Lance would also tell him about Manny and some of the things he had done in school that Lance thought was funny and Keith found himself grinning, listening to the excited man go on about his family and found it so endearing Lance was still family oriented as he was in high school. 

It was endearing yet it was also sad in a way. Considering Keith found he couldn’t really relate to that familial feeling of family dinners, celebrating holidays, or taking care of someone who’s sick. All these things he remembered people talking about, even seen on TV, yet Keith felt so alien to the concept.

He had lived with his dad up till he was 15 until his dad mysteriously disappeared and Keith wound up in a foster home till he graduated and had to leave. The Johnsons weren’t bad at all, not like most stereotypical foster families that resembled some villainous, disney plot where the adopted kid was cast aside, and the child of flesh and blood was showered and praised. No, The Johnsons were a nice couple, who simply couldn’t have kids. They were nice, supportive, and kept their distance as well. Knowing it wasn’t usually a good idea to get attached to the kids since they leave. Keith stayed with them while he finished out his high school career and left for the Air Force right after. They didn’t say much except good bye, but they did give him a decent check for 500 dollars which Keith thought was pretty nice of them. He never saw them again and he didn’t really miss them either.

His brooding thoughts were interrupted as he heard a thwack!

He turned to see the bucket he was using to clean the truck had been knocked over, soapy water and sponge flowing out the bucket and an orange tabby with bright green eyes staring into his almost challenging in a way.

“Dammit Red.” Keith cursed under his breath as he set his sponge down in another bucket, away from the bucket tipping monster in front of him and walked up to said monster. 

Red was a stray that had started hanging around the fire station a few months after Keith started working there. She was fast, curious, and the most annoying creature on this face of the planet. Keith would swear this cat was out to get him. She would always mess with Keith when he was working like knocking his things over, to practicing her kitty parkour moves on any solid surface in the station, including him. Keith recalled one incident where she was high up in the rafters of the station, which he wasn’t sure how she even got up there to begin with, when Keith walked by underneath and she leaped down jumping onto his back and using him as a springboard to jump on top of the firetruck and evade Keith’s shouting.

Another irritating thing about her was how ridiculously cute she was.

Sometimes she had her soft moments, as Keith was staying up late in the station one night, he had fallen asleep, head on the kitchen table and woke up the next morning to a softness and noise that sounded like an engine running, only to find Red had curled up beside his face, paws wrapped around his wrist almost, purring up a storm. Keith would’ve found it cute, even cuddle a bit more with her, if it weren’t for an ominous chuckle from the doorway. Keith had paused and glanced towards the sound seeing Shiro with his phone in his hand, grinning at Keith.

“Hello new christmas card photo,” he smiled and ran away laughing, as Keith leaped to his feet yelling after Shiro to delete it.

Keith still claims that Red was only trying to suffocate him with her fur which of course no one believed.

Keith now stood in front of said cat, who was laying with her belly facing up, paws in the air, purring like a speedboat as she looked up and cocked her head to the side looking playful as Keith glared down at her.

“Why don’t you actually use the toys we buy for you instead of being in the way?” He grumbled as he bent down and scratched Red’s ears finding her favorite spot right away.

Keith was the only one allowed to pet her, if anyone else tried she would often run away or smack them with her paw as a warning. Shiro often insisted Keith should just take her home but Keith couldn’t, since his building didn’t allow pets and he didn’t want to pay any damn pet fee especially when Red was more of an outdoor cat. And like Keith, Red didn’t like being cooped up in one place for so long.

Although, Red has followed him home on more than one occasion. She also somehow knew when he was coming in to work as well, leaving Keith to wonder suspiciously if Red was psychic or something. Just the idea of a psychic cat who probably even knew what he was feeling was enough to freak Keith out a little and he casually side stepped around her, going to grab the bucket and sponge that was still laying on the floor.

“This damn cat.” Keith grumbled as he grabbed a dry cloth and headed back to the truck to wipe it down. Red just padded over to her small cozy bed in the corner that was safely out of the way and had about a dozen toys scattered around it. She may be a free spirit but at the firehouse she was treated like a queen.

Chuckling, Keith turned his attention back to the truck. He usually cleaned the trucks the most, there was something calming about washing them and wiping them down, making them shine that made Keith smile afterwards.

As he finished wiping it down, he stepped back exhaling and admired the way the sun shone through the open garage doors and gleamed on the red trucks. Seeing the light shine reminded Keith of how the light would shine in Lance’s eyes, the dark blue appearing lighter and more like a sky blue than the deep ocean blue he was used to.

Speaking of Lance, he hadn’t sent Keith a weird meme in a while since he started washing the trucks.

Thinking Lance finally took his advice to go back to work and not text him every single meme he found on the internet, Keith grabbed his phone that was sticking out of his jacket pocket and unlocked the phone screen. Lance had texted him apparently, simply asking what Keith had in mind for dinner which made Keith’s insides flutter in happiness. As he ponders what to text Lance, he hears the tell tale whistling that can only belong to Shiro as it got closer till the whistling stopped and turned into a loud wolf whistle, nearly hurting Keith’s ears.

“Well damn, I think you’re getting better and better at cleaning the trucks. If you ever retire, you could always just do this for us.” Shiro joked coming up next to Keith. Keith leaned against the wall and smirked over at him as Shiro inspected the trucks amazed at how clean and shiny they were. 

“What makes you think I’ll ever retire from this? If you forget, you’re older than me by a couple years. If anyones going to be cleaning these trucks after retirement it’ll be you. Old man.” Keith snorted as Shiro smacked his back, nearly knocking Keith over from his posture but he tried to hide that quickly from Shiro who was too busy laughing.

“Watch yourself now you’re still in your probationary period. And how am I an old man? Is this because I go to bed early, because that does not make me old.” Shiro argued playfully.

“Shiro you’re literally wagging your index finger at me, and go to bed at nine. Mentally, you’re old as shit. Besides we all know I’m a good fit for this department and this squad. I doubt they’re gonna get rid of me. At least the Chief thinks so at least.” Keith shrugged. Shiro smiled down at him.

“I’m gonna excuse what you said first because I know you’re still going through your ‘emotional’ phase-”

“Hey!”

“-but I know you’re a good fit for here. Everyone thinks so as well. And from what I’ve noticed, you seem to like it here too.” Keith sighed as he sunk to the ground, arms crossed and waited as Shiro sunk down as well.

“I do like it here surprisingly. Usually I find a reason to leave within a couple months but since joining the fire department, its like I have a purpose now. It’s weird to like being in one place. I never liked being anywhere.” Keith breathed amazed as Shiro chuckled.

“I’m glad you found something to keep your mind occupied! I know when we first met, that was one concern you had, whether or not you’ll stay here in Altea. I’m happy you decided to stay.”

Keith smiled as Shiro's words rang true throughout his chest. For the first time in eight years, he found somewhere he didn’t want to leave. He glanced back at his phone as Lance sent him another message inquiring whether he was in the mood for something fancy, with an emoji doing the wink face which made him laugh a little as he thought up what to say next.

Shiro however, curious as to who made Keith laugh so(not really, he knew damn well who it was), decided to see for himself as he swiped Keith’s phone out of his hand and leaped up running to the center of the garage.

“So how’s your boyfriend doing by the way?” Shiro teased as Keith watched in horror as he started to read their conversation.

“Shiro! Shiro give me the phone! Don’t you dare-“ a camera shutter sound went off making Keith freeze wondering what happened when Shiro turned his phone around and grinned at his handiwork.

Shiro had taken a selfie with a frantic Keith in the background running towards him with a message that read, ‘Quit distracting Keith from work. Hasn’t stopped blushing all day!’ with a smiley face. Keith snatched the phone out of Shiro’s grip and franticly typed out a sorry text message explaining what happened when Lance responded back with several laughing emojis. Keith huffed and looked back at Shiro who was still giggling like a schoolgirl when Keith typed out;

‘Sorry about that. Sometimes Shiro’s like an annoying older brother who doesn’t seem to know what personal space is. Also I’m fine with anything we do. I’m looking forward to seeing you tonight.’ Keith sent it thinking that would be okay to say and glared back at Shiro.

“What are you, a six year old?” Keith questioned as Shiro shrugged.

“Well technically speaking I am, but it beats being called an old man. Has he responded yet?” Shiro asked curious coming over.

Keith chuckled at Shiro’s nosiness while they waited patiently for Lance to text back when he finally did, along with a picture message showing him taking a selfie with all his students in the background making goofy faces or giving each other bunny ears, with Lance in the corner smirking. His text popped up a second later stating;

‘Time to up your selfie game gentlemen, pretty weak for a couple of firefighters B) Dude I know the feeling, I got two of them! Although personal space never really existed at my house considering I have seven siblings but I feel you :P. How about I meet you at that Italian place downtown, I haven’t eaten Italian in a while unless pizza counts which I think it does?? I’m looking forward to seeing you as well! ^̮^’

Good god this boy was gonna be the death of him, Keith realized clenching the area above his heart.

“Shiro what do I say? I don’t have enough of a soul to handle this much cute!” Keith whined as he slumped over on the ground groaning.

He ignored Shiro’s mumbled “Ugh drama queen,” and instead let Red lick his fingers when she trotted over sniffing him.

“Red this guy is going to kill me, when I die I need you to avenge my death. Use your weird cat psychic powers. Don’t hurt Lance though,” Keith added as he dropped his head back on the floor, finding the cool cement soothing yet uncomfortable.

“If you don’t get up, I’m going to send this pic of you as you are now to Lance. Let him see how much of a dork you are.” Shiro boasted and smirked when Keith jumped up and using his fast reflexes, snatched his phone out of Shiro’s grip and scaled up the side of the firetruck, nesting among the firehoses on top. This action prompted Red to go into kitty parkour mode, as she started running around, darting under the trucks and climbing up one to stand beside Keith and peer down at Shiro, her tail flicking with interest.

Shiro shook his head amused and waved bye as he left calling out; “You and that cat are too one with each other sometimes, I swear.” he called, his footsteps echoing as they walked around inspecting the trucks.

“Thanks dad!” Keith shouts grinning at Shiro giving him the middle finger.

With peace and quiet once more, Keith glanced down at the message wondering what to say next, when Red walked over and rubbed against his back. Keith reached back, trying to pet her while also keeping his gaze focused on his phone.

‘Sounds nice. Meet me at 7?’ Keith cringed from how short and direct it was and decided to send another one to make up for it.

He reread Lance’s earlier message trying to find something to comment on. Keith had completely forgotten Lance had a shit ton of siblings. But looking back on it, he could recall the amount of times Lance talked about some of them in high school and remembered seeing a huge crowd of people cheering for him at their graduation.

‘I think pizza counts but it depends on where you get it,’ he pressed send and laid back against the hoses, Red curling up against his side. He closes his eyes listening to the sounds of the radio music, Red’s purring, and Shiro’s footsteps. The sudden ding of his phone broke the peacefulness momentarily as Keith pet Red while reading Lance’s response smiling to himself.

‘I’ll see you tonight then! ;) I think so too! Good to know you’re not biased towards pizza. All pizza is pizza! Except for pineapple. Pineapple on pizza is a sin! Fruit doesn’t belong on pizza.’ Keith smirked as he realized Lance’s error and eagerly texted him back.

‘Then how do you explain tomato sauce?’ he responded grinning wickedly. He only had to wait a minute for Lance’s text and when he read it he almost gave Red a heart attack from how hard he was shaking from laughter.

‘Fuck you Keith :P’ was all it said.

Keith typed out a winky face and laid back down sighing softly as he thought about Lance’s expression and how nice his face is in general. Judging by the tone of the text, he definitely had been thrown off by Keith’s important observation and his face probably did that cute stunned/confused look. Keith had seen it many times throughout high school when Pidge and Hunk talked about engineer/tech stuff.

Not that Lance was dumb, Keith remembered Lance being an A/B honor roll student and could keep up with Pidge and Hunk in most of their conversations. If Keith remembered correctly there were only a couple times during science, when Lance was stumped by some questions and Keith couldn't help but watch as the cute boy would scratch his neck or head in confusion, his lips twisting in a concentrated frown as his eyes would skim over the problem. Sometimes his tongue would poke a little between his perfectly shaped lips...That tongue had haunted Keith for weeks.

Keith sighed, closing his eyes. How in the hell did he never get caught for staring at him, he’ll never understand. Lance pretty much could make any kind of face and still look cute. He could even wear anything and still look like a greek god with his smooth tan skin and blue eyes. Keith himself on the other hand, never really gave a crap about clothes. Usually just sticking to dark jeans, a t-shirt, and his leather jacket.

Thinking about clothes, Keith suddenly realized he had no idea what to wear on this date. The restaurant Lance picked was a decent restaurant nothing too fancy, but Keith didn’t think he even owned anything halfway decent for a place like that. panicking, Keith sat up realizing he only had a couple of hours to prepare for this date and helplessly called out to Shiro.

“Shiro, holy shit!” Keith yelled out, startling Red in the process which she hissed at him for being disturbed from her light nap. Keith heard a loud bang as if Shiro dropped something before hearing frantic footsteps running over to him below.

“Keith? You okay? What is it?”

“I have no fucking clue what to wear on a date!” Keith gasped.

All he heard was silence before a loud cackle was heard and Keith glared over the edge down at Shiro who was laughing so hard no noise was coming out.

He only laughed harder when he realized Keith was glaring down at him like a gargoyle getting shit on by pigeons.

Grumbling, Keith hoped Lance was just as nervous about this date as he was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The date is coming I promise! In fact, it starts in the next chapter! ;) Also the pineapple on pizza discourse is something I can definitely see Keith and Lance arguing about. Also that joke about tomatoes was a reference to the post on tumblr.


	5. You Wanna Stop, Drop, and Roll with Me?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance gets ready for The Date™ and Hunk finds out its Keith.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

Lance couldn’t be more excited!

“Hunk my man! This guy is so hot and hes a firefighter! So hes all kinda of pretty rough and tough looking, yet he has the softest looking hair, which..its a mullet but thats okay! He has a cute face to make up for it!” Lance babbled on as he dabbed on some moisturizer under his eyes.

Hunk merely grunted in acknowledgment as he fiddled with Lance’s door lock..for the seventh time this year.

Blue was laying out by her favorite sunny spot swatting at the dust motes floating in the air. Lance couldn’t help but pop in the living room to watch, she was just so cute. After he d'awed at his cat, he glanced over at Hunk who sighed about the lock and turned to his best friend uncertain.

“Hey Lance, not to put a downer on your ‘pre-date routine of wonder’ as you call it, but as your best bro, I have some concerns here.” Hunk spoke as he frowned at the lock’s unwillingness to attach to the door.

“Aww, buddy you don’t have to be worried about me! I can tell you for certain the guy I’m going out with is nothing like my last relationship with Nyma.” Lance sniffed at the mention of ‘her’ name and turned to watch as Hunk took the power-drill and screwed the lock in place. When he was finished, Hunk glanced back over at Lance, raising an eyebrow at the tall man who was now applying some kind of face mask and rubbing the green liquid all over his face.

“Well I was wondering about that too, but mostly I’m concerned about your living situation here man. This is the seventh time I’ve reinstalled the lock for your front door, your windows are constantly stuck so you can’t open them. Is-is that duct tape holding up your smoke detector?!” Hunk pointed at the ceiling which Lance rolled his eyes and scoffed, waving off his concern.

“Dude, I’m looking for a new place don’t worry! I just can’t find somewhere affordable, within my salary, allows pets, and is within decent driving distance to work.” Lance listed.

Hunk’s eyebrows creased in concern but looked away briefly as Blue came up next to him and rubbed against his leg. He smiled at her and leaned down to scratch her ears better which made her arch up into his hand, nuzzling for his affection.

“You can always move in temporarily with me and Shay. I know she won't mind. And we can always just sneak Blue in, if we get caught, the landlord loves me so I doubt she’ll do anything evil.” Lance shook his head.

“First of all, of she loves you Hunk cause you cook dinner for her almost every Thursday and no one can resist your food. It’s a proven fact my dude. Second of all, theres no way I’m ‘Three’s Company-ing’ with you and Shay in your lovey-dovey, domestic fluff nest!” Hunk huffed as he crossed his arms and pointedly look away.

“Well it just so happens she likes asian fusion cuisine and Thursdays are my experiment nights. It’s a lovely bonding moment we share. And its not that lovey-dovey! We don’t constantly make out with each other despite what you and Pidge keep insinuating in the group chat.” Hunk complained. Lance shrugged turning to go wash off the mask.

“Still, in order to maintain my eligible bachelor lifestyle, moving in with you guys probably won’t help my love life.” Lance stated. Hunk shrugged and turned to the sad smoke detector.

“You want me to fix that fire alarm for you?” He asked to which Lance stared at it before shaking his head.

“I’ll worry about that another time, I’ve got more important matters at stake…like looking good for my date!” Lance’s eyes sparkled as he whooped and hurried into his room with Hunk trailing behind.

“That’s..not as important as your overall safety and protection from a fire...And now that I think about it, its kinda ironic you’re going out with a firefighter cause you have no concerns for your safety.” Hunk pointed out. Lance merely held up a shirt against his torso and looked in the mirror thinking hard.

“Hunk, Keith’s a firefighter. I’ll just casually mention that my smoke detector hasn’t been working right-”

Hunk let out a huge snort which Lance promptly ignored.

“-and persuade him to come take a look at it for me. Then, I casually invite him to the party thats happening in my mouth.” Lance beamed while Hunk made gagging noises in the background.

“Wait, did you say Keith? Didn’t we-”

“Also we went to high school with him! He got..a little taller and some more muscle.” Lance mentioned trying to be casual as he thought about those muscles. He began whistling a little tune not realizing Hunk gaping at him from behind.

“Wait wait, hold up, Keith?! Keith Kogane?! As in Keith-the hot-shot-bad-tempered-emo-with-the-mullet-you’d-recognize-anywhere? That Keith?” Lance merely stared unamused at Hunk, tapping his foot comically.

“Are you done?” he asked simply which Hunk just sputters.

“Dude not that I’m not happy for you, just super confused is all. All those years of you chasing after some made up rivalry-”

“Hey!”

“-only for you to ask him out on a date years later…I’m so happy for you bro!” Hunk sniffled and wiped away an invisible tear as he came up to Lance and pulled him in for one of his infamous hugs that comforted you, yet also could break one of Lance’s bones.

Which he felt was happening right now.

“Could you be a little less happy for me big guy?” Lance rasped out before Hunk relinquished his death grip and patted Lance on the back in apology.

“Ugh, you’re such a sap. And maybe I like his mullet now, or I probably did back in high school what with my weird fixation on that rivalry I had with him.” Lance rubbed his hair which Hunk nodded in confirmation.

“You did talk about his hair alot. I remember you described it as soft numerous times.” He mentioned. Lance groaned at his past idiotic self.

“God how did I not see it then? More importantly, why did you or Pidge never say anything to me?” Lance accused. Hunk held up his hands waving them placatingly.

“I had no idea! Honest! You really seemed to hate him even though he was pretty chill. Pidge probably knew though. Pidge knows all.” Hunk said gravely. Lance nodded.

“Yea thats true…sorry man. It’s only been a few days since we started texting and now I have a couple hours to prepare for the evening…I guess I might be freaking out a little.” Lance admitted although he was mostly saying it out loud for himself. Hunk smiled supportively and patted Lance’s back.

“Hey better late than never, right? If it helps, I think you two would make a cute couple and dare I say it, maybe cuter than me and..Shay even?” Hunk joked which Lance glanced at him astonished.

“Hunk how dare you! There is no couple on Earth, in this galaxy, who can top you and Shay! Simply no couple! Not even my siblings and their spouses. Not even my parents.” Lance insisted gripping Hunk’s shirt while Hunk just chuckled.

“Okay, okay. You better get back to your pre-date routine before you spend the rest of the evening talking about how Shay and I are were meant to be and all that stuff. You have a date with Keith to go to in two hours and I wanna hear how it went afterwards.” Hunk demanded. Lance chuckled and patted his friends back.

“Don’t worry buddy, I’ll give you all the details.” Lance wiggled his eyebrows which Hunk gagged and pushed him away.

“Bro I love you, but no!”

Hunk went back to the living room to inspect the window a little while Lance sorted through his clothing and finished fiddling with his beauty skincare routine and fussed over his hair. Occasionally, Blue would hop on the bed and sniff around Lance’s clothes or head into the living room to let Hunk pet her as she laid down and purred at his feet.

Finally after choosing a decent outfit for the date, a navy blue sweater with jeans that showed off his ass, he had smirked proudly, Lance bid Hunk a farewell who called out a cheery good luck to Lance and headed his own way. Sighing and with only an hour and thirty minutes to go, Lance relaxed on his couch with Blue jumping into his lap. Lance smiled as the tiny cat curled up against him and he softly pet her, enjoying the sound of her purrs.

“It’ll be weird not having me here for the night huh girl?” Lance murmured as Blue peeped her eyes open a little at the sound of his voice only to close them softly as she relaxed against his hand.

Lance sighs quietly and begins thinking about his date tonight. He was actually kinda nervous now. The idea of sitting and eating with Keith only, talking with him made Lance’s stomach do backflips, either in excitement or dread, he couldn’t tell. He hoped that tonight would go well, Keith was pretty damn attractive, and thinking back on it, always had been, considering he usually got most of the girls attentions in high school.

Lance smiled thinking back on all the times he had been jealous that Keith would get so many girls numbers or asked out and yet he always rejected them, saying he wasn’t interested, which makes sense now considering Keith was going out with him. Maybe Keith was gay, Lance wondered, interested. He certainly would attract any guy’s attention with his dark violet eyes, like two deep pools containing the galaxy in them. His dark raven colored hair and how messy, but soft it looked and the ends that curled against the nape of his neck while his bangs hung in his face. When he smiled, it lit up Lance’s world, it was such a rare expression from the scowl he used to wear to back then and the deadpan look today. It was a breathtaking sight and Lance remembered seeing it the other day and thinking Keith could save him from a tree any day. Jesus, he could probably bench press him.

Lance wondered idly if he worked out and what he did to maintain those muscles when his phone alarm went off, saying he had an hour left till he had to meet with Keith at the restaurant.

It usually takes about fifteen minutes for Lance to drive there, so he should probably start getting ready. He may be done with his pre date routine but putting it all together was an art itself and takes time.

He does so, while playing the entire soundtrack to Selena’s 'Dreaming of You', dancing along to the songs and belting out the words.

He may have three sisters and a mom who religiously listened to Selena, but Lance probably knew the lyrics better than them at this point. Lance felt the excitement coming back as he danced and sang along with Selena’s vocals with as much power and force as he could muster while simultaneously trying not to be really loud and tick off the neighbors by accident again.

Being dressed and ready, Lance pet Blue one last time, making sure she had food and water before planting a delicate kiss on top of her head. “Good bye Blue! I’ll be back later, sweet princess!” He grabbed his keys, wallet, and phone and finally left his apartment.

                                                                                                        ________________________

 

Jogging along the sidewalk, Lance hurried to the restaurant they’d agreed to meet at, already running five minutes late.

The elevator had been broken again so Lance had to take the stairs which slowed him down and then his neighbor, the sweet Mrs. Nylund had come home. Probably from her knitting circle at the rec center, which Lance had gone to a couple of times, and he couldn’t let her walk up the stairs alone with the elevator busted and loose handrails.

So Lance did the honorable thing and helped her up the four flights of stairs, chatting about her day, how her great grandkids were doing, who apparently weren’t as sweet as Lance. He was definitely gonna brag about that to his family later. He still couldn’t understand why the landlord wouldn’t give her an apartment on the first floor to make it easier on the poor woman.

After he settled Mrs. Nylund in her apartment and politely declining her homemade lemon squares, he then rushed down the stairs taking two at a time, and almost busting his ass before he made it to his car and hurried downtown to where he was now panting from the quick jog to the meeting place.

Lance stopped just a couple stores down from the restaurant where Lance could see Keith waiting outside, leaning against a light-pole, looking cool and calm as ever. Lance quickly looked in the window, fixed his hair and checked his teeth before clearing his throat and calling to Keith.

“Keith! I’m here!” he waved as Keith popped his head up in surprise and a new look washed over his face which looked like relief maybe?

Lance walked over, trying to slow his pace more but he was too aware of how excited he was getting.

“Sorry I’m late, some things happened! I’m glad you’re here though!” Lance pointed out. Idiot, don’t be too eager, he scolded himself.

Keith let out a breathy chuckle which made Lance freeze, his heart skipping a beat as Keith gazed into his eyes and smiled.

“Better late than never, right?” He chuckled easily and Lance realized then, this boy was gonna be the death of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Date™ is the next chapter! Also I headcanon Lance and his family as Selena fans.


	6. I’d Like To Ride You Like a Firetruck

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Date finally happens, enjoy!

Keith waited outside the restaurant patiently as he idly kept checking his phone to make sure he had the correct time. It was, as it now read, seven-oh-five, and Keith huffed trying to keep the impatience at bay. There’s no need to freak out yet, generally the rule is to wait a least thirty minutes and then you’ve officially been stood up, he repeated.

He’d been a mess of nerves after his shift ended, even calling Shiro for advice on what to wear, which did not help at all since his advice was ‘suit up and shut up’ with a winking face emoji that made Keith want to strangle him. Keith had even called him to rant, but Shiro just wound up saying ‘Patience yields focus Keith’ and after Keith accused him of watching yoga videos again, Shiro promptly hung up on him.

Rude.

He finally found a decent outfit to wear at least, one that had made him look good as he was informed by his past relationships, no one that ever made it past one night stand material, to be honest.

He was wearing black jeans, nice shoes, a dark button up and his leather jacket. He only brushed his hair, deciding not to do anything with it although he regretted not tying it up since he drove his motorcycle to the restaurant and now his hair was all messed up from the wind and his helmet. It would’ve been a fine look had he been on a beach but this was a classy date, or casual-classy date. Keith didn’t know these things that well. He’d only been on two dates and one was just so the guy could get him in his bed, which any other day Keith would’ve throttled someone for using him like that, but this guy had a waterbed and a whirlpool tub, so Keith felt like they both got something out of that night at least.

Keith checked the time again frowning as a small part of him worried that Lance decided not to go through with the date after all, when he hears a loud ‘Keith!’ and looked up. He felt all the anxiety drain away as he glanced over at Lance and then did a double take at him. Lance still knew how to dress decently, as he arrived in a blue sweater that complemented his eyes and made his skin appear darker. He was wearing jeans but they showed off his narrow hips and thighs that made Keith squirm a little just looking at them as he listened to Lance explaining what had made him late.

“I was on my way to my car when my neighbor whos in her eighties, lives alone, stays in the apartment next to mine on the fourth floor, and she was heading inside. The elevator was down so I couldn’t just let her struggle up four flights of stairs! So I escorted her to her home like a true gentlemen and tried to hurry here as fast as I could!” Lance explained, biting his lip a little in worry, wondering if Keith would get mad. Keith merely smiled and nodded.

“It’s okay, I understand. Why’s her apartment on the fourth floor, why not the first?” Keith asked while holding the door to the restaurant open, making Lance teasingly bow down and laughing at Keith’s unimpressed scowl.

“That’s what I keep asking! But apparently the landlord doesn’t have any suitable apartments on the first floor.” Lance shrugged and began talking to the hostess. Keith found that incredibly suspicious but decided to keep that opinion to himself as the hostess led them to a table by the window under some string lights. The table also had clear mason jars filled with fairy lights that added more light to the table and made it more cosy.

“But I should be honest though, I think me singing Selena to my cat also made me a little late as I got a bit too into it at the time.” Lance chuckled while reading the menu as Keith stared at him amused at the idea of Lance singing to his cat.

“It’s no problem. So you have a cat?” he asked smiling.

Lance immediately beams and gushes about Blue, who according to Lance, was the cutest cat in the world.

“She was a grey, fluffy puffball when she was a kitten, but she's lost some of that fluffiness after she grew up a little. She still sheds like crazy though, but she's practically a princess so I don’t mind.” Lance stated with pride. Keith snorted and cupped his chin in one hand.

“How long have you had her?” He leaned forward towards the other boy. He kinda liked the way Lance would talk about his cat. Okay that was a lie, Keith liked it alot, it was very endearing.

“I had her since I finished college three years ago and started teaching. She’s so perfect, couldn’t think of a better cat.” Lance chuckles. As a waiter takes down their drink orders and food orders, Keith afterwards, turns to Lance and smirks.

“Well not to make this a competition, because I remember how you are, I might know a cat who is just as cute as Blue, maybe even more.” Keith dared, raising an eyebrow as Lance gasped, his hand on his heart.

“Keith how dare you! Nobody is cuter than my beautiful daughter!” Lance declared. Keith crossed his arms and raised his chin, looking smug.

“I know a cat who follows me home all the time and seems to know where I’m at all the time.” Keith stated. Okay maybe that wasn’t a cute description at all and more of a cat with stalker vibe, damn.

“You mean you have a psychic cat?” Lance asked, his eyes widening it was almost too comical.

“No, well I mean, yes? I think shes psychic, but shes not technically mine. She’s a stray, she lives at the fire station house.” Keith explained. Lance nodded listening and took a sip of his water.

“Tell me about her, I will not stand for it if shes cuter than my Blue.” Keith rolled his eyes but relented.

“Well I named her Red cuz shes an orange, short haired tabby with green eyes. And a notch on her right ear. When she first showed up, she would follow me around constantly till she decided to stay at the station house and hung around the firetrucks all day. She likes to do her version of kitty parkour. She bounces off anything, the walls, the trucks, and even me unfortunately. She doesn’t tolerate other people so much but she always lets me pet her and cuddle her so I’m not sure what thats about.” Keith explained, feeling a little embarrassed for talking so much about a cat but when he looked back at Lance he was staring entranced at him.

“Dude shes your cat soulmate! You need to adopt her!” Lance exclaimed, Keith chuckled and shook his head.

“No way, Red’s too much of a free spirit to be owned by anybody. Besides, my place doesn’t allow pets.” Keith informed making Lance huff.

“What kind of sick bastards don’t allow pets?” Lance asked making Keith laugh at his outraged expression.

Lance sighed but smiled back at him. “So, we’re obviously great at naming our pets huh?” Lance joked making Keith shrug.

“Orange-red tabby who likes firetrucks. Red seemed to fit. I’m surprised you didn’t name your cat ‘grey’ or something.” Keith pointed out.

“Well, shes got these gorgeous big blue eyes that could melt any evil villains heart and make it grow three times their regular size!” Lance replied dreamily. Gorgeous big blue eyes huh, Keith thought amused as he gazed at Lance’s excited blue ones as he looked over his food that had arrived.

“So what made you want to become a teacher?” Keith asked after they had ate a little in silence, enjoying their food.

“Well I was kinda drifting between ideas for a career, I thought about going to the Galaxy Garrison and exploring space and all that but I decided not to since I’d be incredibly homesick often for my family and Earth in general.” Lance smirked almost laughing at himself which Keith watched encouraging him to continue.

“It was around that time I was babysitting, not just my younger siblings and cousins, but also my sisters nephew, who was the kid you saved the other day from the tree. Thank you tremendously for that.” Lance smiled as Keith waved it off saying ‘No problem,’ with such sincerity it made Lance’s heart swell.

“As I was babysitting more and more I realized having some career working with kids was something I wanted to do. I always enjoyed helping my younger siblings with their homework and showing them new things to do that they can explore. Pidge actually pointed out to me that I should look into teaching and so I did! And here I am today!” Lance smiled proudly making Keith laugh a little.

“Well from what I observed at the school, you seem to be really good around children. That’s amazing in my opinion.” Keith stated which he saw Lance’s cheeks growing a little pink and he continued.

“I always feel awkward around them. I don’t know what to say to or do to be honest.” Keith grimaced thinking about the embarrassing fire drills he had to perform the other day.

“I don’t know about that. I bet you’re secretly good at being with kids, you just haven’t been around them long enough yet. As for that demonstration you did, my kids thought you were hilarious and if you can make little kids laugh you’re good to go.” Lance pointed out, this time making Keith blush from the praise.

“Th-thank you.” He coughed after. How the hell do I handle this, he bit his lip worrying.

“Its the older kids, mostly teenagers you gotta worry about. So angsty!” Lance clarified making Keith snort as he began laughing.

“I doubt we were better than teenagers today Lance. In case you forgot I was a broody, scowling jerk all the time in high school.” Keith reminisced. He expected Lance to play along and joke around but when he glanced back at Lance, he was biting his lip again, his eyebrows furrowed like he was thinking of something unpleasant.

“Lance?” Keith raised his hand unsure if touching Lance would be a good idea when Lance shook his head.

“Sorry its just…Ok so I enjoyed high school, I made decent grades, was on the swim team, won Best Flirt,”

“Because thats all you did.”

“Shut up Keith! Anyways, I don’t regret my experience but I do regret one thing,” Lance looked back at Keith, making him freeze as he felt his heartbeat slow down with everything else as Lance quietly admitted, “I regret being an ass to you so much and I guess I’m trying to say I’m sorry.” Lance responded.

Keith blinked unsure what to do until he thought about all the times he and Lance fought over the most stupidest stuff ever and how he waited to one day confess to Lance he had a crush on him and now that moment was it.

“Uhhh I mean you’re fine, I was an ass too…Wait, this isn’t what this dinners about is it? You feeling guilty all these years and just apologizing to me for being a teenager in high school?” Keith asked unsure and a bit of irritation flaring up. He already had an imaginary scene going on in his head where Lance just nods his head and asks what else would this be, before Keith felt a little knot in his chest at the scenario. Lance just looked back freaked out and began waving his arms franticly.

“What? No, no! That’s not why I asked you to dinner! It was a way of me saying thank you for saving my nephews life the other day..” Oh of course. That’s what he said in the beginning, how could Keith think this ever was a date to begin with-

“But I also wanted to ask you out because..I think you’re really attractive.” Lance mumbled the last part hesitantly as he gauged Keith’s reaction.

Keith froze in his seat not sure if he heard Lance right. Surely his imagination wouldn’t fuck him up like this would it? He gazed back at Lance who was fidgeting in his seat now and blushing a mad mess which Keith found absolutely adorable and wanted to grab his face and kiss it.

“Y-you see, I didn’t realize my sexuality till college and it was only after I found out I liked guys too that I realized all those years of me being a dick to you was because I had a crush on you and didn’t know how to deal with it. I hope I didn’t freak you out or anything, I mostly just wanted to tell you how wrong I was back then but I didn’t know if I’d ever see you again and yet you popped up-”

“Lance.” Keith felt more alive and excited now as he has listened to Lance babble, which seemed to be his go to panic response, how cute. Keith smirked as he thought about a pretty intimate way that would shut Lance up and that involved smashing his lips against the adorable Cuban’s.

Instead, Keith reached forward and grabbed Lance’s hand which finally made Lance pause in his ramblings as he looked over at Keith at first with uncertainty but soon melted in curiosity and then something else while his cheeks reddened, as Keith gazed back at him smiling.

“You don’t have to apologize, for a number of things. Some people figure it out sooner than others. As for your crush, I have something to admit myself.” Keith started, as Lance nodded slightly, his mouth open in awe. Keith glanced down at their joined hands and without thinking, rubbed his thumb over Lance’s knuckles noticing his hand twitch from excitement. He glanced back up at Lance now and realized they had both been subconsciously leaning in more. With his face burning, Keith bit his lip before confessing to Lance what he wanted to tell him back in high school.

“First off, I’m gay. I had realized it when I was pretty young, maybe fourteen, and never had any interest in women. During high school when we would get into our..disagreements I guess I’ll call it, there were times where I would intentionally start something with you..because I liked you. I had a crush on you but I thought you hated me so much, so I never acted on it. And when I saw you the other day I was blown away with how beautiful you still are and how cute and caring you are with the your family, kids, your friends, and now your cat apparently.” They both chuckled at that and leaned in some more.

“Anyways I really wanted to see you again and I was really happy you asked me out. And surprised but mostly happy. So yeah thats my confession I guess.” Keith breathed uncomfortable.

It felt so weird getting all of that out, but as he gazed back at Lance who looked radiant in the soft lighting, Keith knew it was the right thing, as their hands clasped together and Lance smiled, his face reddening more so, while Keith’s did the same.

“I-I’m glad you told me all this.” Lance replied softly, gazing back at Keith with admiration and finally gazing at their joined hands. Keith smiled back at him and nodded.

“Me too.” He whispered just loud enough for Lance to hear and they giggled bashfully.

They simply enjoyed the rest of their dinner together, sending each other tiny smiles. Occasionally they would reach across the table to hold each others hand, laughing as they recalled some previous memories from their high school days. After paying and leaving a tip, they walked outside to where it was cooler than before. The night sky shone above them, a few stars peeking out through the darkness. Lance smiled looking up at them. He’d always been a fan of the stars with their shining beauty in the dark void. He even had some glow in the dark stars on the ceiling of his classroom. He had to take them down every year and put them back up but it was worth it. Especially seeing the kids faces light up with joy when it was nap time.

Lance shared all this with Keith who seemed to be thinking hard when he took Lance’s hand suddenly, with determined gaze but could feel his cheeks warming up as Lance gazed back curious.

“Is it okay if I show you something? It’s only a ten minute drive.” Keith explained. Lance merely nodded stunned and yelped when Keith pulled them towards the side of the road where a gleaming red motorcycle was parked. Is this what Keith wanted to show me, Lance thought confused.

“Haha yea its a nice bike I guess…” Lance trailed off.

Maybe they had too much wine at dinner? Lance thought unsure.

Keith snorted as he shook his head, the corners of his mouth lifting a little as he pulled out a keychain and pressed a button, making the lights blink.

“No dummy. This isn’t what I wanted to show you, this is how we’re getting there. And its a motorcycle, not a bike.” Keith clarified. Lance put his hands on his hips gazing back at Keith as if he were insane.

“You of all people got a motorcycle? I feel like I’m in a cliche rom com now! And of course its red!” Lance pointed out. Keith rolled his eyes and patted the bit of seat behind him as he got on.

“Just get on. Theres a spare helmet in the top box.” Keith stated as he pulled his own out. Lance sniffed at him before taking the other helmet and sliding in behind Keith feeling incredibly shy of all times.

“Umm do I just-“

“You’d be safer wrapping your arms around me. Otherwise you’ll fly off.” Keith instructed. Lance gulped as he slid the helmet on and did as Keith said and wrap his arms around his midsection somewhat loosely.

“How fast are we going exactly?” Lance asked hoping the helmet disguised some of the fear he was feeling. His older brother Emilio drove a motorcycle but his mama was insistent he never get on one in his life.

Sorry mama, Lance prayed to the heavens as Keith glanced back at him.

“It won’t be that fast. I promise.” He spoke softly as if he could sense Lance’s rising fear.

“You may want to hold on tighter though.” Keith added as he grabbed Lance’s hands and wrapped them more firmly around his waist.

“Like this, got it?”

“Yeah Keith I got it.” Lance responded, glad the helmet disguised his flaming face. If only Keith knew the effect he had on him, unless he did and this was some part of seductive plan of his, Lance questioned.

Before he could go into depth about his thoughts of Keith shirtless on a bear rug, Keith’s motorcycle roared to life and the next thing Lance knew he was flying.

Adrenaline replaced fear as they sped through the city. Keith went through with his promise and took it slow for Lance but sped a little quicker as Lance cheered and whooped. Lance clutched Keith’s jacket a little more and edged closer to his back as he felt Keith’s hair tickling his chin and nose making him laugh. Laughing along, Keith drove them through the rest of downtown, and past the suburbs to the edge of the city itself, till they were far enough away but still close to where it was only them, the road, and the miles of grass. Keith slowed down to a crawl and parked on the side of the road . Once the motorcycle was off, Keith parked it and took his helmet off, shaking his hair as Lance did the same.

“You good?” Keith asked smiling when Lance nodded eagerly, giving him a thumbs up.

“All good back here. That was fun! What did you want to show me again?” Lance asked confused as he realized there was basically nothing out there with them. Keith smiled and got off the bike, even helping Lance off as he turned and pointed upwards.

“I wanted to show you this.” he whispered and watched as Lance gazed up to see his entire jaw just drop.

The night sky that had looked like an endless void due to the lights from the city, was now a mix of indigo and midnight blue. While there had been a few stars here and there that you could see, there were now millions of them etched against the varying blues. It was beautiful. Lance stood silently staring at the bright dots in the sky, basking in its wonder.

“I remember you talking about the stars often from school and when you mentioned them outside the restaurant, I knew I had to take you here. What do you think?” Keith beamed as Lance continued to stargaze almost as if he was in a trance.

“It’s so beautiful…I don’t want to look away ever.” Lance breathed.

Keith gently took Lance’s hand which finally pulled his gaze away from the stars to look back at the darker haired man who was looking at him as if he was the night sky. Lance felt his heartbeat slow down as he gazed back at Keith’s dark orbs, the light from the stars making them appear like a deep onyx with its own stars glittering in their depths, pulling Lance in more. He felt like he could swim in those eyes forever as Keith took Lance’s cheek in one hand and guided him forward till their mouths met. It was simple and gentle but held so much spark for both of them as they kissed forever under the starry sky. And as they both pulled apart, they both realized the stars shining paled in comparison to the developing feelings they had for one another.

“I’ve always wanted to do that.” Keith admitted. Lance chuckled and leaned his forehead close to Keith’s and closed his eyes in happiness.

“Better late than never, right” He echoed and leaned in when Keith pulled him forward again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keith is a hoe, lmao. I'm tired. Hope you liked!


	7. As A Firemen, I’m an Expert in Whats Hot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After date shenanigans and Keith hates Lenny faces.

“I can’t thank you enough for coming over Keith, I feel like I’ve kept you for too long.” Lance joked as he tossed his keys on the kitchen counter while Keith hovered looking around the apartment. 

“It’s fine. I’m not working tomorrow anyway. Besides, when you told me about your shitty apartment and that your smoke detector was a little broken, I felt my moral duty as a firefighter won over my tired, blissful state from our date, so I had to come check it out myself.” Keith winced at the several locks on the door and noticed how the far window in the living room was stuck a quarter of the way down from the windowsill.

“Plus, I was curious as to how you lived and inside of a trash dump did not come to mind.” Keith added as he looked up at the cracked ceiling.

“Oh haha. I’m dying here. If you hadn’t made it with the fire fighting bit you could make it doing standup!” Lance rolled his eyes as Keith looked around the living room.

“Besides I’m looking for a place, just haven’t found the right fit yet.” Lance shrugged. Keith idly gazed at some pictures Lance had hung up and noticed a lot of them were of Lance and his family, either on vacation, during the holidays, or just messing around. There were also some of his adventures with Hunk and Pidge, Lance making ridiculous faces in each one which brought a smile on Keith's face. 

“My building has some available spaces.” Keith offered. Lance scoffed and pointed his finger accusingly, as Keith glanced up confused.

“Your building doesn’t allow pets which is a deal breaker. Where I go, Blue goes. No exceptions!” Lance crossed his arms, pouting while Keith chuckled.

Hearing her name, Blue runs in from the bedroom, her eyes wide, searching for her boy. Lance grins as he walked over to her, cooing at his precious princess.

“Speak of the devil! Keith meet Blue, Blue meet Keith!” Lance introduced, coming over to stand by Keith while holding Blue like a baby in his arms. Blue only mildly struggled in her owners arms while Keith just stared not sure what Lance wanted him to do.

“Um…hello?” Keith said, Blue twitched as he spoke and struggled to get out of Lance’s arms which Lance relented and placed her down.

She immediately took off to the other side of the room where her water dish was, lapping up some with her pink tongue while Lance glanced back at Keith and shrugged. “Don’t worry about her, sometimes she gets in her moods.” Lance waved his hand dismissively.

He turned to go back to the fridge saying something about grabbing drinks for them and as Keith was about to follow, he hears a light meow and looks down. There was Blue, somehow sneaking her way back over to Keith to sniff his shoes and gaze at him curiously. Keith just stared back unsure what to do.

“Um…” He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly which must have been the right thing to do as Blue sniffed his feet again, what did they stink or something, and immediately plopped down on the floor. Her belly and paws curling up to face him as she gazed back at him finding delight in laying on Keith’s feet and making it impossible for him to move without being an ass.

“Wha…Blue?” Keith asked confused as Blue just wiggled a little and finding it amusing when he said her name.

Sighing, Keith gently lifted one foot, sliding it out slowly from underneath Blue who just stared intensely the whole time. Keith could feel sweat drops forming on his neck. He slides one foot out from underneath Blue and easily slides the other out, gently rolling Blue a little so she was rolled onto her side and off his foot. Oh thank god, Keith breathed calming down now. He stepped around Blue, washing away the unease as she watches him walk away towards the kitchen. Lance who had been watching the whole interaction and trying hard not to laugh, smiled as Keith joined him, handing him a beer.

“It seems Blue likes you pretty good. She doesn’t just lay on anyones feet you know.” Lance winked making Keith snort before taking a sip of his beer.

As he pulls the bottle away, Keith glances up and sees the supposed smoke detector barely hanging to the ceiling by some duct tape, wires spilling out of it. Frowning, Keith looks up at it and inspects it as he gets closer.

“Christ, this isn’t even a little broken, its really broken! Is..is that duct tape? Your smoke detector is held together by duct tape, unbelievable. How long has it been like this?” He wondered how the hell Lance was able to live here.

Does the landlord even know about this, Keith wondered and a small part of him wanted to go and bang on the landlords door and drag his ass up there and make him listen to a lecture about fire safety. The landlord obviously needed to have a long talk about fire safety and how smoke detectors shouldn’t be duct taped to the ceiling for starters. He'll even get Shiro on the phone as well, that guy can talk about fire safety for hours especially if someone was being stupid risking their safety, which Keith had been on the end of that conversation once upon a time. 

Lance who was a little embarrassed about the state of his apartment for once, scratched his neck feeling awkward.

“Only a couple of days…” Lance trailed, hoping Keith wouldn’t catch the uncertainty in his voice. Keith spun around to glare at Lance, catching him off guard. The two continued to have their stare down till Lance sighs and sits at the counter, pouting. “Okay five months.” He muttered.  

“WHAT?! Lance! Do you know how unsafe that is? You, a kindergarten teacher who has his own students learn about fire safety for a whole day, and yet you’re living with a broken smoke detector! What the hell!” Keith exclaimed, taking Lance by surprise there. Now this seemed more like the Keith he remembered from high school, Lance thought nodding to himself before he heard the sound of something scraping and popped his eyes open. Keith was dragging one of his kitchen table chairs over underneath the alarm.

“Keith, what are you doing?” Lance asked innocently and shivered a little when Keith’s intense glare focused on him.

“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m fixing it, you dingus.” Keith huffed and climbed on top of the chair, and took out a pocket multitool. Lance watched as Keith began carefully taking off the duct tape while Lance watched entranced.

“Keith you don’t have to do that. I mean, we are technically still on a date, I just wanted you to look at it and-”

“No, I want to. Fire safety is very important Lance. I do not fuck around with this shit.” Keith cursed as he finished removing the duct tape and used one hand to try to reattach the device, using the other hand to hold it, preventing it from falling and pulling out the wires even more.

‘Yeah no kidding,’ Lance thought as he took a swig of his beer and watched Keith work.

 Every so often Keith would ask for Lance to pass him his beer which he did like a good date. Although this is one hell of a first date, Lance thought amused. 

‘Then again at least I get to stare at Keith’s ass, so who's really winning here,’ Lance laughed in his head, his eyes roaming over Keith’s backside. Keith had one hell of a perky butt. 

“Lance?”

Lance shot up from his seat, attempting to look casual as he glanced up at Keith who had an amused look on his face.

Dammit, gotta be cool Lance, you are known as the tailor after all, Lance chided himself and smoothly took a swig of beer.

“Yes Keith?”

“Do you ave any screws laying around anywhere? I’m gonna need some to put in this thing.” Keith explained, a lighter tone coming from his voice. Lance nodded.

“Yeah, sure.” He got up and rooted around in one of the kitchen drawers, finding several in an unopened package which he blushed seeing, considering everything was pretty much falling apart in his place. “How many you need?”

“Just about five if you have em'. Also, If my ass is too distracting just let me know I’ll turn the other way, thanks.” Keith teased seeing the tips of Lance’s ears turning red.

“Oh you know what, here you go!” Lance handed Keith the screws and went to go pout on the couch with Keith laughing as he finished on the device.

After the last screw was in place, Keith hopped down smiling proudly at the newly fixed smoke detector that was attached to the ceiling. Without duct tape, Keith thought victorious. Keith moved the chair back to the table and then grabbed his beer heading to the couch where Lance was, smiling at him as he plopped down beside him.

“Thanks for fixing my smoke detector, I can cook without worry again!” Lance smiled while Keith scooted closer.

“You’re welcome. Maybe you should ask me out again as a thank you.” Keith hinted making Lance snort and shove him away playfully.

“Sure. I’ll even cook.” Lance lit up, smiling like a dope. Keith chuckled before his gaze settled around the room again and he sighed.

“Lance I gotta ask, how did you wind up living here? I mean I always thought you were a little oblivious-”

“Hey!” 

“-but this place is a hazard. I’m surprised its still standing to be a little honest.” Keith stated, a little concern lacing his tone.

Lance sighed and leaned a little on Keith who blushed but daringly, wrapped an arm around Lance who hummed appreciatively.

“Honestly it was the only place I could afford and allowed pets. It’s also a decent driving distance from work and its easier to rent while I pay off my student loans as well.” He admitted. "It'd be great to find another place that was perfectly safe and met all my requirements but right now money's kind of tight and I can't afford to just pick up somewhere now."

Keith frowned not sure how to help him with his issue. He wanted to be there and help Lance but what could he even do, he already offered some suggestions like his building and it was too soon for them to think about moving in together. The thought of Lance living at his place made Keith freeze up as his face started burning and sputtered trying to think of what to say when Lance shrugs, oblivious to Keith’s inner turmoil. 

“I’ll be fine, its like I said earlier I’m looking around for a better place. I’ll find one at some point. If it gets too unbearable I have several offers to crash at other peoples couches if this goes up in the shithole.” Lance grinned, Keith snorted.

“Pretty sure it already has.” Keith grinned and started laughing at Lance’s indignant squawk and light slap on the shoulder.

“Keith! Don’t be mean we’re finally bonding and stuff.” Lance pursed his lips making Keith smirk and grab his cheeks to squish them despite Lance’s quiet ‘oomph!’

“Well if you need help with fixing anything, just give me call alright?” Keith asks which Lance nods.

“Actually do you know anything about faucets? Mine’s a little loose in the bathroom sink.” Lance mentioned. Keith nodded and got up to inspect it, Lance took a sip of his drink letting Keith explore on his own. He listened as Keith’s footsteps trailed through his bedroom towards the bathroom and stop abruptly.

“DUCT TAPE DOES NOT FIX EVERYTHING LANCE!”

                                                                              ____________________________________

 Eyes blearily opening as the sun streamed in past his blinds, Lance sniffed as he stretched and rolled over in his warm bed, clutching the sheets closer. Blue was tucked up against him, stretched out like he was. Her light purrs and rising body made Lance reach out and softly scratch her head as he drifted back to sleep. 

Just as he was slipping back into dreamland, Lance started to smell something like cooking meat. Humming approvingly, Lance continued sniffing until he froze and his eyes popped open.

‘Why does it smell like something burning,’ Lance thought, and as soon as the question popped in his head, Lance threw back the sheets and raced out of bed. His ninja reflexes apparently startling the shit out of Blue, which Lance called out a ‘Sorry Blue!’ as he raced out his bedroom into the living room and kitchen where he was met face to face with Hunk and Pidge who were talking animatedly but stopped once they noticed he was there.

“Oh good you’re awake. I made bacon!” Hunk stated cheerfully which Lance just scowled before pointing accusingly.

“What are you two doing in my kitchen?! It’s seven in the morning!”  Lance exploded. Pidge gazed at him unimpressed as they paused in their messing with an iPad.

“Lance its almost noon. How much did you drink with Keith last night?” Pidge asked raising an eyebrow at Lance’s gasp.

“How did you know about me being with Keith? How did you even know about Keith to begin with?” Lance asked confused. Pidge sighed, pinching the bridge of their nose with their thumb and index finger.

“You kept messaging us in the group chat last night. Always check the group chat Lance. Besides, I know everything.” Pidge snickered.

They held their phone up for Lance to scroll through their conversation he had sent at one am, with Lance sharing his wonderful evening spent with Keith, including what they did, Keith’s surprise, and how they had a fun evening back at his place where they just talked and cuddled a little. Hunk had sent a thumbs up emoji and a text to tell Lance to get his ass to bed.

“Ugh, I meant to text only Hunk! Don’t give me that betrayed look Pigeon, we all know you’re a robot who's incapable of love!” Lance sneered but yelped when Pidge punched Lance in the arm before taking their phone back.

“How dare you, I’ll have you know robots can feel things Lance. Special things.” Pidge leaned in and whispered the last part, effectively creeping Lance out.

“Well in that case, I hope you feel this!” Lance jumped towards Pidge, dodging their kicking feet as he put Pidge in a headlock and gave them a fresh noogie, despite Pidge’s annoyed cries of, ‘We’re not in high school Lance, knock it off!’

“Oh suck it up you little gremlin, I missed ya.” Lance chuckled as he straightened up and smoothed Pidge’s hair a little with the latter’s frown softening some.

“Yeah I missed you guys too supposedly. Work’s been keeping me busy so its been somewhat difficult to hang out. It’s why I came down today after finding out you were dating ‘Mullet boy’.” Pidge grinned wickedly, wiggling their eyebrows making Lance snort.

“God Pidge, of all the reasons to drag you out here, you come down because I went on a date with Keith? What about all my other dates?” Lance asked suspicious as he swiped a slice of bacon off the plate despite Hunk’s protests. Pidge swiped one as well, also ignoring Hunk’s displeased expression with him pointedly moving the bacon away from them, muttering about manners.

“Yeah I didn’t care for the others, obviously.” Pidge rolled their eyes when Lance let out a gasp and put a hand to his forehead.

“Oh Pidge! How could you wound me like this?” Lance cried dramatically as he wiped away an invisible tear.

“Enough already, tell me about Keith! How’s he doing? How did you two wind up going out?” Pidge asked feeling nosey while Hunk announced brunch is ready and the three friends moved the plates and food to Lance’s kitchen table. Lance’s mama had always told him one thing in the house that is a staple, is a good dining or kitchen table. It’s what brings families and friends together as they share food and their lives. Lance always took this advice to heart and one of the first things he bought for his apartment was the kitchen table he now used.

As Hunk and Pidge settled down to begin eating, Lance fed Blue as she came poking out of the bedroom curiously, still wary after being thrown off the bed earlier. Lance gave her an apology treat, whispering sorry over and over as he stroked her fur, hoping he hadn’t hurt her. 

He joined his friends at the table afterwards and began telling Pidge the wonderful story of how he and Keith reunited at the school’s safety day explaining that Keith was now working with the fire department.

“Oh so thats what he does now! That also explains your working smoke detector.” Pidge chuckled seeing Lance’s face go red while Hunk inspected the object himself, nodding approvingly.

“I thought something was different. I just thought it was some new feng shui you were trying to do.” Hunk shrugged before popping a bit of a muffin into his mouth. Lance rolled his eyes and placed his head in his chin.

“Anyways, I wanna hear about the details. Did you guys hold hands? Was it romantic?” Hunk asked beaming while Pidge gagged.

“This is also why I don’t hang around you guys that much.” Pidge chewed on their bacon while Lance sighs dreamily as he tells Hunk, and an unwilling Pidge, everything from how he showed up a little late, to their intimacy in the restaurant, Keith showing Lance the stars, which is where they both kissed for the first time. Hunk cried a little in joy while Pidge rolled their eyes but Lance could tell they were secretly happy that Lance was happy, so he went on. He explained about how he mentioned his smoke detector was broken, how Keith insisted on seeing it, to them arguing about the alarm, Keith actually fixing it, and afterwards they cuddled on the couch and talked till Keith left around one.

“Guys, Keith is just…ugh hes so cool and badass.” Lance declared thinking about the way Keith smiled and how when he was fixing the smoke detector, his piercing gaze stunned him and how time had frozen it seemed.

Hunk patted Lance on the back, nearly making Lance choke on his food. “I’m proud of you, man. You’ve grown up so much, it just, gets me feeling so happy I have you two in my life.” Hunk sniffled, making Lance awe as he rubbed comforting circles in Hunk’s shoulder.

“Easy big guy, getting overly emotional over here. Pidge might not be able to process it.” Lance teased while Pidge shrugged.

“Hey at least I’m not too distracted by a boy to not notice I’ve been standing around and eating in only my underwear.” Pidge commented.

Lance’s gaze shot down to reveal he was indeed still only in his boxers, making him shriek in his high pitched voice that made him sound like a ten year old girl, which never failed to make Pidge and Hunk laugh. Lance’s face turned red as he fumed.

“Why didn’t you two say anything?” he demanded, even though he already knew the answer. Pidge merely shrugged and kept eating like it wasn’t anything new.

“Wanted to see how long it took you to figure it out this time. And it was funny.” Lance frowned and then turned to Hunk who held up his hands placatingly.

“Bro I’ve seen you in way less, it doesn’t affect me anymore when you walk around butt naked so I figured you knew and didn’t care.” He said matter of factly. Lance squinted his eyes still annoyed but with a grunt he got up and headed towards his room to at least fetch his robe.

With Lance distracted, Pidge leaned over to swipe Lance’s phone, which he usually leaves to charge on the kitchen counter.

“Ooo what are you doing?” Hunk asked curious, leaning over to watch Pidge expertly type in Lance's password to unlock his phone.

“Getting Keith’s number. I want to see how hes doing. Especially after a date with Lance.” Pidge wiggled their eyebrows again making Hunk snort.

“When you’re done, let me see it, I want Keith’s number as well.” Hunk reminded which Pidge nods typing in the number and then passing it to Hunk.

                                                         _______________________________________

Keith had been doing pushups as part of his morning routine, when his phone went off alerting him to a text message, making him pause. He sat up panting, the beads of sweat starting to form at his brow and back when he swiped his phone and stared in confusion seeing a number he didn’t recognize.

‘Hey Keith it’s Pidge from high school! Just wanted to know how your date with Lance went last night ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)’

Why is Pidge texting me? And whats with that face, its creepy, Keith thought confused.

Another message popped up, also from an unknown number and when Keith swiped to read it, he was blown away by the sheer excitement radiating from this person.

‘Hey Keith!!! How are you man? It’s been so long since high school! Oh this is Hunk btw!! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ ‘

Ok these faces are getting weird, Keith texted Hunk first, just a simple ‘Hi Hunk.’ before he switched to Pidge’s text.

‘Hey Pidge. For starters, how did you hear about me and Lance going on a date last night and how did you get my number? Did Lance give it to you?’ Keith waited with a slight frown on his face before glancing at his screen curiously when Pidge responded back.

‘Bitch I know everything ◉_◉ And no, I got your phone number from Lance’s phone duh. He has a heart emoji next to your contact name just fyi’

‘Really? Wait you shouldn’t go through peoples phones Pidge! That’s an invasion of privacy! And so is asking about peoples date nights…’ Keith mashed the buttons hoping his irritation could be sensed through the phone. He wondered if Lance had told them everything and a small part of him felt embarrassed, not used to others seeing THAT side of him. 

‘Yes its sappy and cute as hell it makes me sick. Also, you don’t tell me what to do, I tell you what to do, and I want you to tell me how you feel about Lance, cuz he’s one of my best friends and like an older brother to me…I just want to make sure he's happy. I also thought you were pretty cool in high school so I hope you’re happy as well.’ Keith felt himself smiling after that before he cleared his throat and went back to his deadpan expression as he typed out a short response.

'Yes I had a good time and Lance seemed to as well. I would like to see him again if he’s interested.’ Keith smiled and with that he turned back to his routine. When his phone went off again, this time it was a text from Lance, apologizing for his intrusive friends behavior and how he didn’t give out his number on purpose they were just the sneakiest assholes alive, which made Keith’s lips quirk into a smile as he typed out.

‘It’s fine. Hopefully, I’ll get to see them again. And you.’  Keith smiled as Lance sent back an automatic yes and workout routine forgotten, Keith texted back eagerly even though he had just said goodbye to Lance earlier that morning.


	8. Bet We Can Both Fit in Those Bunkers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lenny faces galore and Shiro is a fucking meme machine. Keith + 5 year olds = greatness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry its been a week, things have been happening my friends. Anyways hope you enjoy!

It was next week when Keith got to see Lance again, although they had been texting nonstop since their first date. Keith was even persuaded by Lance and the others to download a chat client that the trio used and was quickly added to the chat being welcomed with more of those weird faces that creeped him out.

‘It’s funnier this way.¯\\_(ツ)_/¯’ Pidge texted while Lance and Hunk sent a dozen more Lenny faces, as they were called.

Keith simply rolled his eyes and let them continue to bombarde him with messages.

On Tuesday it was particularly bad and Keith found it hard to ignore their antics as well as ignoring Shiro’s questioning glances. His phone wouldn’t stop beeping and he had to put it on silent, but the vibration on his phone was still loud itself. Drawing the attention of several of his coworkers.

“We’ll you’re suddenly popular today.” Shiro noted to which Keith shrugged.

“What, getting jealous Shiro? Don’t worry you still have me, for no one can replace you.” Keith teased, laughing as Shiro simply shoved him away chuckling.

The messages became nonstop, apparently Pidge and Hunk were very bored at their jobs that day, while Keith was hoping no one else could hear the distinct vibration of his phone during the meeting he was currently stuck in, but the occasional curious/annoyed glances at him told him they did. Finally, after a brief intervention, Shiro turned to Keith and held out his hand signaling for Keith to hand over his phone which he did, knowing what was going to happen. Shiro opened the groupchat immediately and began typing;

‘Hey guys, this is Keith’s friend Shiro at the station. We’re both in a very important meeting and I think everyone on the force would gladly appreciate it if you guys could chill with the constant messages since Keith’s phone is driving everyone crazy and we can’t legally put it on silent when we're on the clock. Thank you! :)’

Shiro handed Keith’s phone back watching in amusement as Pidge and Hunk sent more messages expressing confusion while Lance simply texted, ‘Hi Shiro!!!! ( ﾟヮﾟ)’. Keith chuckled as Shiro’s face reddened when Lance demanded another selfie of them again with Pidge and Hunk joining in as well.

“You started this Takashi. Don’t forget that.” Keith replied gravely while Shiro sighed and resigned to his fate, snapping a pic of him and Keith smiling, with the firetrucks in the background, and sending it to the group-chat before texting back.

‘There have a selfie. Now if you guys don’t cool it and go back to work, you’re all gonna catch these hands ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)’

“Shiro you know about those creepy faces too!” Keith muttered surprised. Shiro merely giggled like a child as he watched Pidge and Hunk respond with more faces while Lance merely responded with, ‘ded’. It was an eventful Tuesday for all of them. 

Keith finally saw Lance that Wednesday, as he was in his apartment, cleaning his bathroom. Red had followed him home again and was hanging out on the balcony watching him like a creep. He had refilled her food dish he had left out there for her, and not because he felt like Red was his cat! He just really cared about her well being ok, and made sure Red wasn’t anywhere near the edge where the other tenants could see her. He didn’t want the landlord breathing down his neck again, about seeing Red hanging out at his place.

While Keith’s neighbors generally minded their own business, he wouldn’t put it past a couple of them to report Red to the landlord. And Red didn’t deserve to be hounded by animal control and locked up, she was free like Keith. Free to go anywhere she pleased and yet she chose to hang around him for some reason. Keith was shooing Red off the balcony telling her to go back home, home being the station house, when his phone went off. Keith opened the text to see it was from Lance and frowned sensing the urgency from Lance’s words.

‘Keeeeeitthhhhhh this sucks! I forgot my lunch for today! I’m gonna starve and shrivel up and die! DX’

‘Every time I think you’ve matured since high school, you do things like this that prove otherwise.’ Keith teased smiling as Lance simply sent him a middle finger emoji.

‘But seriously, I’m dying over here (;´༎ຶД༎ຶ`).’ Lance responded.

Keith blinked wondering if Lance wanted him to bring him something and his face heated up as he texted back ‘Want me to get you something?’ and waited nervously biting his lip.

He waited another twenty minutes wondering about his text, maybe he’d been too forward, was this too fast? No, otherwise all that cuddling they did on date one would’ve been too fast. Wait was that too fast as well? Keith shook his head, rubbing his hand through his hair bitterly. Why was this all so complicated, he wondered. He went back to cleaning when his phone went off and he pretended he hadn’t just sped through his apartment to grab it. He checks the message and the response he gets made his heart flutter and a smile grace his face.

‘Would you really bring me food?’ Keith could almost picture Lance asking bashfully, with a timid expression on his face making his heart swell at the mental image.

‘Of course.’ He texted back. He waited for Lance’s response, cleaning forgotten and soon enough, Lance answered back, excitement oozing through his words.

‘Great! Just pick something up and come over! I’m allowed visitors anytime! \\(*u*)/'

With that, Keith got dressed as he was only in his boxers and a t-shirt before grabbing his keys and his wallet and heading down to his bike, Red watching from her perch as he took off.

                                                                                      ________________________________

 

Keith stood in front of the school, anxiety rolling off him in waves.

This was stupid, he’d been in burning buildings, had saved about a dozen lives and yet he was terrified of going inside the elementary school full of kids. Keith scoffed as he rolled his shoulders back and set towards the building. Kids weren’t scary, fires were scary. Huge, unidentifiable bugs were scary. Yet after he walked inside and glanced around, he felt scared.

Looking around, the whole place was bright and welcoming, and smelled like pencils and paper. Unsure where to go, Keith turned to the right and saw the office and figured he better start there. A lonely weirdo in a dark leather jacket wandering around the halls of a school wouldn't make the best impression. Walking in, he heard the distant sounds of paper printing and the sound of a phone ringing. There were a couple kids hanging out there, both looking like they were around ten and pouting in their seats. Keith turned to the man sitting behind a desk that had a desk nameplate that said ‘receptionist.’    

“Um…” Keith began, staring at the man, whose name appeared to be Mandy on the nameplate, but there was a piece of notebook paper taped over it, reading ‘Coran’ in scribbled pen. The man couldn't be over the age of fifty, had some noticeable wrinkles as well as a bright orange handlebar mustache that matched his hair. Every time the man sniffed, his mustache would twitch in a certain way that distracted Keith more than he cared to admit. He wasn’t too busy with his typing to notice him when he turned and flashed Keith a huge smile. 

“Hello what can I do for you today?” He asked cheerfully which threw Keith off. Then again, anytime someone was unnecessarily nice for no reason, it always made Keith suspicious.

“Maybe you can help, I’m trying to find Lance McClain, he’s a kindergarten teacher here.” Keith explained which as soon as he mentioned Lance’s name this Coran guy started nodding his head, understanding.

“Yes, yes I’ve heard of him, such a fine lad! And what is your business with Lance?” He asked, the slightest hint of suspicion filtering his tone which Keith took a small bit of offense.

“My business with Lance?” Keith repeated confused which Coran leaned back in the leather desk chair, twirling the orange mustache around as he replied.

“Well all personnel who don’t work here, are required to sign in with one of these two forms. Either you’re dropping off an item for a student or staff member, or you’re here to visit a student or staff member. Now are you visiting or dropping that parcel off?” Coran asked pointing at the brown lunch sack.

“Visiting.” Keith blurted out and tried to stifle how uneasy he felt at the older man's knowing smile. He wasn’t sure what the difference between visiting and dropping off was, but he assumed visiting meant he could at least go see Lance. Coran typed a few things down into the computer before handing him a clipboard and pen.

“All visitors need to sign in and mark down what time they were here and please come back when you are done with visiting to sign out. Our photo visitor sign in is down so we have to do things the old fashion way. Here’s your name tag, just write your name and please wear it someplace visible at all times.” Coran recited without blinking the entire time as he explained this all to Keith. Keith looked to the name tag pad before grabbing the pen Coran handed him, the pad was the same one he had to fill out before for safety day, he wrote his name as legible as he could feeling like Coran was watching him extra closely in case he didn’t write it neat enough.

After filling out his name tag and then remembering to sign in on the clipboard, Keith stuck the sticker over his jacket clearly visible for all to see. Coran nodded approvingly and pointed down the hall.

“Visitor bathrooms are just down that hall. Do you know how to get to Lanc- I mean! Mr. McClain’s classroom?” He asked innocently hoping Keith didn’t notice the slip up. Keith snorted but when he looked down the hall he realized he had no clue where he was at and the whole point of him going to the office was to ask for directions so...

“Actually no, can you please tell me?” He asked glancing away embarrassed, which Coran nodded.

“Just go down these halls, take a right, another right and then a left. Mr. McClain’s classroom will be the third door from the right. He has a spaceship on his door which won’t be too hard to miss.” He stated proudly. Keith chuckled at the mention of that and quickly thanked Coran before exiting the office.

Keith started walking down the hall he thought Coran had pointed at, and after taking two rights was faced with a dead end. Huh, so this was confusing.

Keith retraced his steps and went down another hall only to realize he was in the area where the fourth grade classrooms were. Keith scowled, taking out his phone to text Lance while walking around completely lost. Just as he was about to go back and make an embarrassment out of himself even more, Keith turned a corner and wound up in the hall with the kindergarten classrooms.

Sighing in relief, Keith sent Lance a text saying he was here and headed to find Lance’s classroom. Sure enough, Lance’s door was easy to spot with a giant spaceship cut out from bulletin board paper, with a ‘McClain’s Space Explorer Home Base’ in bulletin letters, taped to his door. There were some fairy lights strung across the door to create the illusion of stars and a few cut out bulletin stars and planets, to create the galaxy. It was very creative and very Lance, Keith noticed and looked at the bulletin board next to his classroom seeing it covered in drawings presumably made by the children and two class pictures hanging up next to them. Keith glanced over the pictures curious and smiled gently as he saw the kids in a serious photo smiling brightly with Lance standing next to his class, hands folded behind him smiling easily into the camera. The photo below that brought a chuckle out of Keith, as he saw it was a goofy photo the class took, all the kids making goofy faces or giving each other bunny ears. What made him really chuckle as he shook his head amused, was Lance who decided to dab in the photo, as well as his nephew on the other side who was dabbing towards him. It was extremely goofy and so sweet it made Keith forget he was about to walk into a classroom full of kids.

Keith finally turned to the door, hesitating and with one ear pressed to the door, he knocked gently and heard Lance call a soft ‘Come in.’ Gulping, Keith opened the door and stepped in to be greeted with over two dozen eyes that bore into his own. Stopping in his tracks, Keith glanced around as all eyes were on him and he gulped again, taking back all his earlier statements about kids not being scary. Keith thought briefly about how slamming the door and running away suddenly seemed like the most plausible thing to do, when Lance’s cheery “Keith!” stopped him in his tracks.

“You made it! I was worried when I hadn’t heard from you in a while! Hope it wasn’t too confusing. Oh sweet, you got something from the deli, you saved me!” Lance put a hand to his heart and dramatically swooned in his chair a few feet away as a few giggles cascaded across the room as the kids thought their teacher was being funny. Keith blushed and turned to Lance who was grinning as he spun in his chair.

“I-uh, here’s your lunch.” Keith stated and dropped it on Lance’s desk. It was kinda weird seeing Lance behind a desk. It was so grown up and cute, plus Lance looking like an overexcited puppy made Keith’s heart melt seeing it.

“Thanks, hope you got yourself something as well right?” Lance asked which Keith nodded.

“Good! Cuz we’re having a lunch date! Although our lunch isn’t for another twenty minutes so we’ll have to wait a little. Is that okay? Oh, were you doing anything important today?” Lance asked worriedly. Keith smiled and shook his head.

“No, I was just cleaning. I got time.” he smiled as Lance’s cheeks glowed a soft pink.

“Great! You can take a seat right over here!” Lance patted a chair next to him, which Keith rolled his eyes and sat down and finally gazed around the room.

Lance had a space theme going on apparently. His desk had a 3D model of the moon on his desk that held pens and a giant view of Earth poster on the wall behind him. There were also some posters of the galaxy scattered here and there along with the typical bright, cheery learning focused posters. In one corner there was a little rocket mobile spinning around lazily with models of the sun, moon, and planets orbiting around each other. Keith glanced up and saw the glow in the dark stars Lance had mentioned from their first date and smiled upon seeing them.

Among the space stuff was your typical classroom set up with tables and chairs arranged in a color coordinated way, a huge rug with shapes and colors marking each as a setting place was at the front where a rocking chair was sitting facing towards them. In the back, there was a sink lined up against the wall with a small table and three chairs. There were paint cups and paintbrushes stacked and a painting rack where some pictures were drying, as well as a clothesline with different paintings done by the kids, hung up next to each other. Over by the windows was a play house set up with a trunk full of costumes spilling out. Behind the house was a reading nook with beanbag chairs and a shelf of books and a toy chest. Beside the whiteboard, was a chore chart with all the kids names listed as well as Lance’s, and a small birthday calendar with everyones birthdays. There was also a schedule listing their day and activities as well as a weather chart recording the days weather. It reminded Keith of his days when he was in elementary school and felt kinda bittersweet to be back in the classroom. 

Finishing his inspection of the classroom, Keith locked gazes with Lance who was staring at him, grinning.

“What?” Keith asked blushing to which Lance snorted.

“Nothing.” He replied but he still had the same stupid grin on his face. Lance got up suddenly and clapped his hands, getting the attention of his students, which wasn’t that hard since there were still some looking at Keith.

“Okay guys, we have a visitor with us today, so be on your best behavior! Everyone, this is Keith, now give him a warm welcome!” Lance encouraged. Keith sputtered as all the kids turned to him with huge grins on their faces with some even waving at him.

“Hi Keith!!” they all cheered. Keith felt his face burning as he waved a little back.

“Um hi?” he squeaked. A couple kids giggled and Lance waved his hand dismissively.

“Keith’s a little shy okay, so don’t overwhelm him too much.” Lance instructed. Keith pouted over at Lance when he heard more soft giggling and he glanced away embarrassed. He glanced over at the kids who were once again curiously peeking at him but with small smiles. He chuckled a little seeing a couple kids nod their heads all serious like, when Lance told them to finish their learning activity and offering to help a few of the kids out.

As they worked on their activity, occasionally a kid or two would pop their heads over to Keith and smile shyly at him which made him glance away awkwardly before he heard a telltale giggle and blush even more. He spent the remainder of the time watching Lance as he knelt down by the kids tables, assisting with one little girl in matching her shapes, pointing out that each shape has a different number of sides. Lance was explaining the difference between rectangles and squares when Keith felt his lips draw up in a smile. He had never noticed before but Lance was really good with children. He remembered then that Lance had a ton of younger siblings so doing things like this probably came naturally to him.

While Keith admired Lance from afar he was too busy ogling to notice one student in particular.

Manny had noticed Keith was watching his uncle. Manny bit his lip happily wondering if his scheme the other day worked and remembered his mama telling him to tell her right away if he noticed Uncle Lance behaving all lovey dovey like she did with papa. Satisfied and feeling like a secret agent, Manny happily assisted with his neighbor on their shapes as he was already done with his, occasionally looking up every now and then to see Keith watching his uncle with a blush on his face and a small smile.

Finally when twenty minutes passed and the kids all finished their activity, Lance told them all to line up, it was time for lunch which prompted kids to scatter as they raced to their cubbies to grab lunch boxes while others lined up at the door patiently. Lance came over and grabbed their lunch and nudged Keith to get a move on.

“C’mon you’re hungry right?” Lance smiled so casually, Keith smirked back at him and stood up following him out the door and trying hard not to think how weird it was they had two dozen kids following behind them in a single file line.

They got to the cafeteria where some of the kids who didn’t bring their lunches, headed to the lunch line while the rest of Lance’s kids headed to four designated tables in the cafeteria that were assigned for Lance’s class. Lance pointed at a small round table in the middle of the four tables.

“You can sit there and I’ll come back to join you okay? I just gotta keep an eye on my kids while they’re in line.” Lance stated and hurried off to the lunch line, high-fiving one of the lunch ladies and yelling, “What’s up Miss. Tyson?!” Keith snorted at Lance before heading over to the circle table. He pulled out one chair and sat down, and decided to text Shiro while he waited for Lance. Just as he was opening the text message app, he felt a small tap on his shoulder and he turned around.

“Um hello?” Keith asked startled to see a small boy with brown hair and dark skin. He was the kid he saved from the tree last week, Lance’s nephew.

“Oh hey. Um, climbed anymore trees recently?” He asked feeling awkward. The kid grinned and shook his head no.

“Good. That’s good, so um, did you need something then?” The kid, was it Manny? nodded his head.

“I just wanted to say hi! You saved me from that tree and you’re a firefighter!” Manny pointed out excited.

“Yes. I am. Those are all facts.” Keith said and winced from how terrible he sounded. He was probably being super weird to this kid right now. Manny just laughed instead.

“You’re weird! It's funny! Did you drive the firetruck to school?” Manny asked, eyes all hopeful. Keith felt almost bad and smiled apologetically.

“Sorry, we uh, only use those for emergencies..kiddo.” Manny deflated and Keith wanted so badly to say ‘Yes, I drove here on a firetruck, and now I have one for you as well!’ Instead, he bit his lip and scratched his neck awkwardly.

“I just drove my motorcycle here.” He stated, Manny’s eyes popped open wider, his sad expression gone as he gaped at Keith.

“You have a motorcycle?!” He practically screamed, drawing the attention of several other kids. Keith paled in horror as they surrounded him and began firing off questions.

“What color is it?”

“Is it fast?”

“Why don’t you have a car?”

“Can you drive a car? What about a truck?”

“Do you drag race?”

Keith was overwhelmed by the questions and even a little scared at the last one. He was grateful when Lance finally came back, talking to Coran surprisingly, who was apparently in the middle of telling Lance some story making the younger male laugh at the others antics. It was then Lance noticed the kids crowding around Keith and shooed them away back to their lunches.

“You guys we only get thirty minutes to eat, gotta use our time wisely.” Lance recited which the kids listened and went back to their tables obediently although some pouted. Manny however hovered and stared at Keith long and hard till finally he smiled. “I like you.” He simply said and went back to a table with other boys and one girl who all seemed to be sporting lunch boxes with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme.

Lance sighed and plopped down in the chair next to his, smiling. “Sorry about leaving ya. What were the kids hounding you about anyways?” Lance asked curious. He started digging into the lunch Keith brought and handed Keith’s sandwich over to him.

“Manny asked if I brought the firetruck so I told him I drove on my motorcycle instead, and that got their attention.” Keith chuckled. Lance laughed as well as Coran who was seated next to him, eating..something. Keith wasn’t sure what it was but it looked like it could either be pudding or soup. Lance started to introduce Keith to Coran when Coran waved him away interrupting his introduction to give Keith a wink.

“The lad and I met earlier when he was signing in. Had to give him directions to your classroom actually!” Coran explained. Keith merely raised an eyebrow in response.

“If you’re the receptionist shouldn’t you be in the office then?” Coran again waved his hand like Keith had sputtered complete nonsense.

“Oh I was just covering for our usual receptionist! She’s quite a lovely gal, I’m sure you’ll like her when you meet her! I’m assuming you are coming back to visit though aren’t you?” Coran asked putting Keith on the spot.

“Er well…”

Lance quickly stepped in.

“Coran does a little bit of everything around here! He’s the vice principal of Altea, and Allura’s right hand man. Keith this man is a savior, he will drop anything to help someone! Tell him what you’re doing now Coran!” Coran smiled at the younger’s positive praise and even blushed a little before twirling the end of his mustache.

“Now Lance, I’m merely fulfilling my duties to help the school and provide an enriching environment to the students! But right now I am substituting for another teacher who had to leave early for an emergency! Those little tykes are bundles of energy! But I’m sure I can tucker them out before their nap time.” Coran shrugged making Keith stare at him blankly.

“Huh well that is impressive to do all that and still manage vice principal…stuff.” Keith had no idea what a vice principal did other than picturing Coran standing behind Allura and wagging his finger if a student were to get in trouble.

“It’s nothing! What is it you do if I’m permitted to ask Keith? I swear on my great aunts bread pudding, I recognize you from somewhere...” Coran squinted at Keith who flinched back unused to the eccentric man staring him down, probably close to poking him like some scientific experiment. Lance then began to explain how Keith was a volunteer for Safety Day, that he was a firefighter which Coran nodded along interested.

“Ah! That's right! Well good to meet you Keith! I hope to see you around again! Lance here is like a nephew to me so he gets away with almost anything around here.” Coran stated ignoring Lance’s betrayed, “Hey!”. Keith felt butterflies at the idea of him coming back again, having lunch dates with Lance, and interacting with the children again while Lance had dug into his food, moaning a little.

“You alright?” Keith asked unsure. Lance merely nodded.

“This sandwich is my everything right now.” Lance replied making Coran laugh and Keith snort.

Lance and Coran talked about upcoming preparations for the school, like parent-teacher night, something about a school play, and of course the approaching holidays. Keith mostly tuned all of that out, choosing to text Shiro instead. 

Keith sneakily took a selfie with Lance not paying attention and sent it to Shiro saying ‘how do I get bae to notice me?’ and clicked send. Shiro responded quickly with the laughing emoji and asking where Keith was.

‘At the elementary school…I brought Lance his lunch.’ Keith explained. Shiro merely responded back with a picture of a whip and a creepy face.

‘( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)’

‘Stfu’ Keith texted and put his phone down.

He watched as Lance was animatedly telling Coran some story, probably about one of his kids, and felt himself focusing on Lance’s features. Particularly how animated he got when the kids were happy, or when they understood what he was teaching them, it made Keith happy seeing him like this.

He felt even more happy as he found Lance’s fingers curling with his under the table and Keith happily clasped his back.


	9. You’re Hotter Than a 5 Alarm Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kids are cute. Keith is cute. Lance is cute. Just cuteness all around.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My best friend made fanart! Here's a link to it on my tumblr: http://savetheunderwaterunicorns.tumblr.com/post/159866887219/my-best-friend-ever-angry-lil-goblin-made-fanart  
> Here's her tumblr as well (http://angry-lil-goblin.tumblr.com/). Shes funny, awesome, and the brilliant inspiration for the title of this fic, also her avatar is a picture of Coran, shes the dictionary definition of cool at this point.
> 
> Also: Thank you for the wonderful comments you guys leave, they really make my day! I'm so so so glad you guys enjoy the story, I appreciate all the comments and kudos and hits this thing gets!

Back in the classroom, the kids were now taking their naps although some were disgruntled with the idea and wanted to inspect Keith more. Lance merely shooed them to their individual cots and had the lights dimmed, soft music playing and the stars on the ceiling glowing brightly. Keith smiled, leaning back in his chair watching them before slyly lacing his fingers with the hand on the desk next to him. Keith chuckled quietly and grasped Lance’s hand more firmly, balancing his cell phone in his other hand to text Shiro. 

He traced his thumb lightly against Lance’s, enjoying the warmth that trailed along his skin at his touch. Lance continued to hold his hand while he graded papers, using the downtime to catch up on the classwork he’d been meaning to grade. Usually this activity took forever and Lance kinda hated doing it but seeing his students trying so hard and doing their best made him beam with pride. He glanced back at the stack and sighed softly before realizing that Keith was sitting next to him doing nothing but texting Shiro.

Slyly, Lance used his free hand to nudge the pile of papers he already graded towards Keith who looked up in confusion as Lance then slid the roll of stickers next to his elbow. Wiggling his eyebrows and putting on his best smile, Lance gazed up at Keith pleadingly. Keith snorted before quickly covering his mouth as he gazed around the room hoping he hadn’t woken any sleeping children up. He looked back over at Lance who was laughing quietly behind his hand which Keith frowned at. He turned towards the stickers beside him an idea forming. He quickly peeled a sticker off the roll and tapped it on Lance’s nose before he could realize Keith’s little scheme.

Lance pouted as he stuck his tongue out at his giggling boyfriend but kept the sticker on for Keith’s amusement. They went to work immediately, Lance grading the papers and Keith delicately putting stickers on them. He didn’t remember the last time he even messed with stickers and found himself thoroughly enjoying the little task as he concentrated on putting only the best stickers on the children's assignments. Lance was watching him from the corner of his eyes and smiling to himself.

'He’s so cute like this,' he thought internally gazing softly at the sight of Keith’s tongue poking through his lips as he smoothed down one sticker after sticking it on a paper.

They continued in silence till the papers were halfway done and Keith thought it was best if he left then, so as not to push visitation boundaries, but it was mostly because Lance looked too cute grading his students homework. His encouraging handwriting on the children's assignments were making Keith weak and want to kiss him with so much passion he'd been holding back since he first walked in and saw him sitting behind his desk.

With promises to text each other later when Lance was free, Keith was almost out the door when Lance got up and quickly pecked him on the lips and shyly going back to his work with Keith blushing brightly. With a quick wave and shutting the door quietly, Keith wandered down the halls in a daze, remembering Lance’s lips against his own.

He was in such a dream-like state he wandered outside before stopping in the middle of the parking lot, realizing he had forgotten to sign out back in the office.

‘Fuck..fuck. Fuck!’ Keith thought as he ran back in, hoping Coran hadn’t seen him.

He had. As well as Allura, the principal he and Shiro met the other day. They both merely giggled, as he stood there writing the sign out time and scowling.

                                                                                  ______________________________________

 

It was finally the weekend when they both had time to meet up again.

Actually, Lance decided he needed to see Keith again.

Being a full-time firefighter, Keith had a weird schedule that was drastically different from Lance’s. While Lance’s job was the typical 9-5 shift, or rather 7-3 because of school hours, Monday through Friday every week, Keith’s job was a twenty-four hour shift of being on call followed by forty-eight hours off. Keith had explained to Lance how he usually broke the shift into eight or twelve hour shifts but sometimes depending on the emergency, he’d go longer than twelve. His schedule also changed each week depending on who was available to work. Thankfully, he knew his schedule a week ahead of time so planning their little dates here and there was simple and not stressful for either of them. Especially Lance, who was dealing with enough stress already between work, bills, students loans, and now Manny.

Manny had apparently been reporting to his sis about his relationship with Keith. Vanessa had taken to constantly texting him, asking what he looked like, and did she need to give the shovel talk again because if she did she would need three days to prepare and also drag Sebastian and Emilio in on it.

'Why do you need to give Keith the shovel talk? No one needs the shovel talk! We're not teenagers anymore!' Lance had texted the family group chat, fingers flying across the keyboard, Blue snuggled in his lap, her purring presence calming his rising blood pressure. 

'Chill lil bro. It's a rite of passage all your potential partners have to deal with. Plus I haven't used my shovel in a while. It's getting dusty. :( ' Lance groaned thinking about Sebastian and his damn shovel, which was really just one of those plastic, lil kid shovels used for the sand at the beach. 

It was exhausting and finally after a phone call from his mama, who Vanessa had been gossiping to her about Lance’s new lover, Lance hung up and sighed turning to the little sneak who started it all. He was watching over the little boy while his sister Vanessa had work and after some teasing on her part about a certain fireman, she had left and Lance was alone with Manny.

Normally, they would do some activity to keep Manny occupied, like watching something on Netflix, playing with his toys or Blue, but none of these hobbies sounded interesting to Manny today as he slumped over the couch arm and groaned, staring at his uncle upside down.

“Uncle Lance I’m borrreduh.” Manny groaned irritably. Blue was sleeping peacefully next to him or was trying to as her eyes would pop open into slits every time Manny would shift or move on the couch.

Lance groaned too, rubbing his eyes tiredly. It was now the afternoon and he had Manny since that morning. There wasn’t any nearby playgrounds for Manny to go to in his neighborhood and he had played with all his toys. Lance wasn’t making much progress on his lesson plans for next week either. He hummed as he tried to think of something for them to do when he remembered Keith was working at the station today. Maybe they could visit Keith a little bit if he wasn’t busy. Lance quickly sent Keith a text asking if he was busy, which he quickly received one back.

‘No not really. It’s been pretty slow. So far I’m just cleaning up the station a little. Also is it weird I’m craving cookies? You mentioned last night you were craving lasagna and now I want cookies. I think your food cravings are taking over me now. >:/ ’

Lance snorted and began to text back when an idea struck him. Grinning, Lance texted Keith to hold on with a little heart as he got up from the table. Lance turned to his frustrated nephew who was now playing a new game called glaring up at the ceiling while counting all the cracks in it.

“Manny I have an idea.”

“Oh no..”

“Hey! It’s a brilliant idea kiddo! You haven’t heard it yet..” Lance pouted, crossing his arms while Manny sighed and sat up. He crossed his arms and glanced up at his uncle with a 'go on' type gesture.

“I’m listening...” He stated simply and rested a cheek in one of his palms.

“We’re going to make Keith cookies and deliver them to him. Won’t that be fun?” Lance asked brightly which Manny smiled a tiny bit.

“Can I lick the batter? Please? Mama won’t let me when we make cookies!” He begged. Lance pretended to think.

“Really, she doesn’t? Then heck yeah! You can lick all the batter you want! After we make the cookies that is! It's the best part of the cleaning process after all!” Lance stated and Manny happily got to his feet as they headed to the kitchen.

“I get to lick the cookie dough batter and you get to surprise your boyfriend Uncle Lance.” Manny teased making Lance’s face flare bright red, as he struggled to come up with a response.

“Hush you. Now help me get the stuff ready.”

They gathered the ingredients they needed and began working. A couple times, they would get distracted and off task till Lance reminded Manny(and also himself) that he had a fireman to surprise. While they were baking, they happily scooped some of the remaining batter out of the bowl with their fingers while watching them bake. Lance also had to watch the oven as it sometimes ran too hot and would start smoking. It was a recent problem and after Vanessa found out she happily started referring to his apartment as a deathtrap now. Which was a nickname also picked up by Pidge and Hunk, much to Lance’s displeasure.

“Uncle Lance?” Manny asked quietly, gaining Lance’s attention who had been idly petting Blue in his lap.

“Hmm?”

“Do you like Keith, like how Mama and Papa like each other?” Manny asked curious. Lance nervously fidgeted with his hands, a nervous tick he had since he was young and his siblings would tease him for.

“Uh well, I think um…I certainly like his face. His hair is pretty soft…Looking I mean! You’re too young to be asking these things! Let’s check on the cookies!” Lance darted towards the oven, nearly forgetting the oven mitts while Manny rolled his eyes at his uncles behavior.

The cookies came out delicious and Lance broke one in half to split with Manny to taste test and agreed they were delicious. It was an old family recipe Lance had picked up from his mom and her family back in Cuba. Lance couldn’t remember if Keith had any nut allergies and hoped he didn’t as he wrapped the cookies up and prepared to leave the apartment, Manny in tow.

Checking his phone to see if Keith had texted him, Lance smiled seeing the question marks. Lance grinned and sent another heart to him as he took Manny’s hand and led him to his car.

                                                                             ________________________________________

 

Once they arrived downtown, Manny demanded to carry the cookies much to Lance’s amusement and they continued to walk hand in hand down the street towards the approaching fire station. 

Entering towards the garage area where the doors were open, Lance glanced around seeing a few firemen here and there till he spotted Keith near the corner talking to Shiro.

“Keith!” Lance called, waving when Keith glanced over confused and then surprised as he recognized Lance. He walked over, scowling over his shoulder at Shiro who wolf whistled as well as a few other firemen making Lance blush from the attention. Keith walked up to him smiling and about to say something completely inappropriate when Manny popped up behind Lance smiling.

“Hi Keith! We made cookies!!” He said holding up a container gleefully.

Keith’s startled expression melted into confusion as he glanced back towards Lance who had a sheepish expression on his face.

“We were kinda bored so I thought we’d make cookies since you were craving them.” Lance explained, suddenly feeling intrusive.

Keith looked back at the cookies smiling a little as Manny took one out of the container and handed him one. They definitely weren’t store bought, they were homemade. Keith took the cookie, thanking Manny and took a bite. His eyes widened at the explosion of flavor, tasting vanilla and cinnamon mixed together.

“Holy shi-" Keith began.

“Sheep! Holy sheep haha! Wow aren’t they just cute animals? Manny go share some with that firefighter over there.” Lance ruffled Manny’s hair before pushing him in the direction towards Shiro who was now chatting with two other firemen.

Watching his nephew approach the firefighters with a cute smile, offering cookies, Lance sighed at the close call and turned back to Keith who was blushing and looked slightly ashamed of himself.

“Sorry I-”

“It’s ok! My family slips up all the time. Especially Vanessa. Don’t worry about it too much.” Lance winked getting Keith to smile again.

“Still, I need to work on the language a bit. Shiro gets on my case enough. Those cookies were the best cookies I’ve ever eaten. It was like some kind of witchcraft..Lance stop laughing, I’m being serious.” Keith scowled as Lance doubled over laughing.

“It’s not everyday someone compares my baking to witchcraft. What kind of cookies have you been eating Keith?” Lance giggled. Keith shrugged.

“I don’t really eat junk food.” He stated making Lance gasp.

“What? My boyfriend doesn’t eat junk food? What the hell kind of sorcery is this? We’re going to have to fix that then.” Lance rambled not realizing he had called Keith his boyfriend, or the fact Keith had realized what he said, and was now staring agape at Lance who continued to babble on about junk food.

“Seriously, I thought you used to smuggle Twinkies into the school library back in high school! Or maybe that was Hunk…but Hunk hates processed food though, so who-Jesus what Keith? I know I’m good looking but geez, take a picture already.” Lance blushed as Keith just stared him down exasperated.

“Do you even realize what you just said?” Keith squeaked as Lance raised an eyebrow in confusion.

“No? What did I…Oh poop.” Lance breathed, face going pale as he gazed back at Keith who was smirking now.

“Boyfriend huh?” Keith asked chuckling as Lance went bright red and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

“Well, uh, I know its only been a few weeks and I wasn’t planning on asking so soon, or in my case blurting it out so soon, but I figured maybe after a couple more dates we would establish what this was and-” Lance paused as Keith gripped his hands, halting his rapid hand waving which he also tended to do when he was nervous. Usually he’d knock something or someone over which was when he noticed.

Keith smiled gently making Lance’s toes curl as he began speaking.

“I don’t mind. I was thinking the same thing honestly. And since you brought it up, what do you say we have a date tonight? I get off around 7. I’ll pick you up and you can ask again if that makes you feel better.” He offered loving the way Lance’s eyes would soften as they gazed into his.

“I would like a redo. I was gonna be romantic with it and everything!” Lance stated making Keith chuckle.

“Alright then. I’ll see you tonight.” Keith promised. Lance smiled and was about to call Manny back so they would leave the firemen to their jobs when he looked around and realized Manny was no longer in his sight anywhere.

Briefly panicking, Lance called Manny’s name getting Keith to look around in confusion as well.

They both calmed down when Manny’s voice called out drawing them to the other side of the firetruck where Manny was with Shiro and two other firemen. 

Lance let out a laugh while Keith chuckled seeing the five year old smiling toothily wearing a heavy fireproof jacket and helmet. Lance walked over and kneeled down to Manny’s height tipping the helmet back to look in his nephews eyes.

“I see you’ve been busy.” Lance snorts as Manny waved his arms eagerly, the sleeves flapping around like those inflatable tube men outside car dealerships.

“Shiro let me try on his helmet and jacket! They’re super heavy!” Manny announced. The weight of the clothing did not deter his spirit though as he walked over to Shiro in a toddler style waddle. Shiro chuckled and removed the jacket, handing it over to one of his amused coworkers before turning back to Manny.

“You can keep the helmet on a little longer if you want.” Shiro offered making Manny beam up at him and cheer in happiness. While Manny chatted with Lance about the helmet, Keith turned towards Shiro who took out one of the cookies from the container and bit into it. Keith walked over staring Shiro down as he ate the cookie.

“Shiro, you better not eat all my cookies.” Keith declared trying to hide his amusement when Shiro paused and glanced at it before looking over at Keith.

“From what I understand these cookies were a thank you gift from a grateful citizen, who I assisted with rescuing from a tree. So technically they’re also MY cookies.” Shiro clarified despite Keith’s scoff.

“I’m the one who climbed the ladder and my boyfriend is the one who made them for me specifically.” Keith argued. He wasn’t actually upset he just liked to get a rise out of Shiro sometimes. Shiro merely shrugged and popped the rest of it in his mouth chuckling at Keith’s offended gasp.

“So boyfriend huh? You guys made it official already?” He asked jerking his head to Lance who was talking to the other firefighters about something which Keith felt a little bad for ditching him to chat with strangers but then again this was Lance. Every day consisted of Lance chatting with strangers. He had a way with people that Keith would never understand how he made it look so easy, but it was just another admirable trait of his boyfriend's he loved.

“Well Lance kinda blurted it out by mistake but tonight we’re going out and I’m giving him a redo.” Keith rolled his eyes but smiled fondly at the thought. Shiro studied him and nodded his head in Lance’s direction.

“I know what will give you brownie points with him as well.” Shiro said mischievously which quickly caught Keith’s attention.

“What are you gonna do?” Keith asked curious. Shiro merely smiled and headed towards Manny and Lance with Keith trailing behind.

“Hey Manny, with your uncles permission, would you like to see the inside of a firetruck?” Shiro asked bending down to Manny’s height. Manny looked at Shiro as if he was the sun and was just given a lifetime supply of cookies. He glanced up at his uncle giving him a begging look, complete with sad puppy eyes and a pouty lip, which Lance laughed and ruffled his hair.

“Yea go for it dude.” Lance smiled as Manny whooped and grabbed Shiro’s hand who lead them towards one of the trucks. Lance followed behind as well with Keith, who smirked at Shiro’s plan.

As Shiro opened the doors, letting Manny inside and sitting in one of the seats, he begins explaining to Manny about the different mechanism inside with Lance watching him from the outside while Keith merely watched Lance. He casually slipped his hand into Lance’s and squeezed it gently, smiling as Lance squeezed back. Lance turned to face him then and smirked causing Keith to feel the butterflies doing somersaults in his stomach.

“Hope you’re prepared to woo me tonight samurai.” Lance murmured his lips twitching when Keith blushed a little at the nickname.

“I’m sure I’ll think of something.” He teased back and they both smiled at one another before going back to listening to Shiro explain to Manny about why they don’t have a Dalmatian like firefighters do in the movies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please go check out the fanart! It'll mean so much to my friend! Hope it was another good read! I'll probably post the picture on here towards the end of this fic, which I'm thinking around 15 chapters plus an epilogue! I also have a oneshot series of these dorks and their adventures dating go take a read if you'd like. So far i have one chapter for that fic but I have alot of oneshots that take place in their future and don't want to spoil anything so I'm gonna post them when I can! Happy reading! :)


	10. Hey Boy, Wanna Slide Down My Pole?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith plans to woo. Lance is a disney princess. Also Red is the ultimate wingman.

Keith was fidgeting in the plastic chair, his leg shaking as he tried to think of what to do.

He had originally made reservations at some nice place downtown that Shiro recommended to him because Keith didn’t know any nice places to eat that didn’t also include a neon bar sign. He also had to do everything he could to woo Lance tonight, which he knew he had that in the bag, but he needed the right setting to really nail the mood. So with Shiro’s recommendation, and plans to go back to his apartment and profess his growing feelings for the Cuban man, Keith had everything set.

Until he was called to the Chief's office and asked to stay later and look after the station since his coworker had to call out. So that happened.

Keith sighed as he finished sending Lance the text asking for a raincheck for another date. He slumped in the chair, perched at a small circle table in the break room that had a small kitchen, as well as some vending machines, and a worn couch.

He idly flipped his phone around in his one hand, hoping Lance wouldn’t be too disappointed, when Shiro walked in, heading for the coffeepot, but paused seeing his glum friend.

“Don’t tell me you two broke up already?” Shiro joked laughing nervously. Keith laughed without humor and watched in the corner of his eye as Shiro tensed.

“No we didn’t break up, I just found out I’m covering the station tonight so I can’t make the date with Lance.” Keith informed him, huffing the hair out of his face. Shiro snorted and sat down in the chair opposite Keith.

“Wow, haven’t seen that expression on your face since they ran out of donuts that one day. Keith, it'll be fine, its not like you won’t see Lance again.” Shiro gently reminded him putting a hand on his shoulder.

“That’s just it Shiro, this won’t be the last time I have to stay late and look after the station, or go on calls in the middle of the night, or cancel dates last minute…Eventually Lance would probably get tired of that and want to date someone whose there all the time. Who isn’t risking their life when they go on a call when theres a fire…” Keith trailed off.

Shiro frowned and leaned forward to pull Keith into a hug who rolled his eyes but relented. He let Shiro wrap a supporting arm around him and shoved his forehead against his chest making Shiro chuckle a little.

“Keith you are worthy of finding someone. Yeah, you’ll have to put your job before anything else sometimes, but if they don’t understand that then to hell with them. A firefighters duty is never easy, but its what we do to help others. I’m sure Lance understands this more than you think.” Keith nodded, refusing to lift his face while Shiro smiled as an idea came to him.

“I’m also sure Lance loves you more than you think as well.” Shiro added and laughed as Keith punched his arm mumbling shut up as his face heated up. Shiro rubbed his arm which was now a little sore, smiling as Keith sat back in his chair, arms folded while his cheeks flamed.

“I hope this helped somewhat. If not, I’d say invite Lance over here. We got a stove, we got a table. It’ll just be you two…And if things get, you know..a little..we got a couch as well.” Shiro ducked as Keith threw a couple napkins towards him, yelling at Shiro to shut it.

Shiro laughed and waved as he walked out of the break room after grabbing some coffee while Keith sat there thinking back on Shiro’s words. He had to admit, Shiro did have a point except for that last part. Keith widened his eyes, blushing as he thought about Lance panting and eagerly kissing his jaw-

Standing up and clearing his throat to get _that_ image out of his mind, Keith pulled out his phone and texted Lance once again. This time, asking him to meet him at the station around seven instead. Smiling as an idea came to him, Keith hurried to where Shiro ran off, an idea cooking up in his mind.

                                                                           ______________________________

Lance glanced down at the clock on his phone screen reading exactly seven on the dot. Keith had texted him to meet here after saying he couldn’t make the date tonight which Lance understood. Keith was a firefighter, he had to protect the city and a job like that usually comes first before anything else.

Lance figured Keith probably just wanted to hang out. It most likely got lonely being in the station by himself. Since this was Keith, Lance was in no way showing up in just his ratty jeans and t-shirt from earlier, which he did not cry about as soon as he got back home, with Manny patting his head for comfort. Nope, that didn’t happen at all.

So after Manny was picked up by Vanessa, and quickly ratted him out to his sister, telling her about his upcoming date with the fireman, Lance with the nosey opinion of Vanessa, was dressed in a cleaner pair or jeans that were tight and showed off his ass, as well as a casual button down and cardigan. Lance had on a coat as well since the chilly autumn air was now upon the town, he hurriedly walked over to the station garage since they were the only doors open again. 

Peeking around, Lance hummed to himself as he realized all the lights were off in the station except for a dim light that was coming from down the hallway at the top of the stairs...Hm weird. 

“Um hello? Keith?” Lance called and jumped when he heard a clang and looked up to see Red (who he’s seen in pictures Keith had taken of the feline) perched high up on one of the rafters near the ceiling.

How the hell a cat managed to get up there baffled Lance but he shrugged it off and walked away not paying her any mind. The place was quiet and a little eerie, sending chills down Lance’s spine as he made his way across the empty garage towards the light which was becoming more comforting rather than wandering around the dark garage. It was more warm inside too so Lance shrugged his coat off and hung it on a peg that had several others coats hanging on it as well. It was eerie to see the station so..quiet and not hustle and bustle like it is during the day. 

He hears a sudden low pitched ‘meow’ behind him and screams, jumping about ten feet in the air as he spun around and stares down at Red who had somehow jumped down from the ceiling to sit behind Lance pointedly, blinking up at him. Her tail was swishing as if she was laughing at Lance’s reaction, making him squint at her accusingly.

“You did that on purpose, I know it.”  Lance pointedly glaring down at her which she leaned over and licked herself, making Lance huff and look away.

'I mean you have to give her some privacy while she’s licking herself,' he thought, remembering Blue and her frequent bathing sessions.

Another meow distracted him from his thoughts and Lance looked over at Red curiously, as she walked around and in between his legs to get his attention. As Lance bent down to pet her, she took off towards the doorway and paused, glancing back to see if Lance was gonna follow her. Lance chuckled and started walking in the direction, it seemed Red was guiding him to where he needed to go.

Thinking how weird it was for a cat to act as some sort of spiritual guide like in video games, Lance followed Red up the steps towards the second story of the station. He idly wondered if the garage doors were supposed to be open like that, but after another meow that sounded more like a warning, he continued down the hall looking around, wondering where Keith was and why the station was so dark.

Red paused right outside a doorway where the mysterious light source was, making Lance pause and smirk down at her before walking into the room and freezing at what he saw.

Lance had walked into what he guessed was the kitchen of the station, only it had been transformed with candles lighting around the countertops and a small lamp on the small circle table, covered in a red tablecloth with a bottle of wine and two plates of food sitting on it, the heat from the chicken rising in the air. There was a single rose next to one of the plates, and as Lance stepped closer to inspect the food, he heard a noise behind him making him spin around, a squeak of a gasp escaping his mouth as he took in the appearance of his boyfriend.

Keith merely stepped into the room, smiling at Lance’s surprised face, feeling slightly embarrassed as Lance’s gaze roamed over his body in appreciation. 

“Whoa..Keith.” Lance breathed, taking in Keith’s drastically different appearance. He wasn’t wearing his work t-shirt or dirty jeans, instead decked out in dress slacks, a button down, and his hair slicked back, revealing more of his handsome face. Lance felt his face grow hot as Keith stepped closer towards him, standing ridiculously close to where their lips were almost touching.

“Hello Lance.” Keith murmured, leaning a little bit more and kissing Lance on the cheek.

Holy fuck, Lance was pretty sure his knees were shaking by now. Leaning back a little, Lance mumbled hello to Keith almost kicking himself from how stuttered it came out, when Keith reached around him and grabbed the rose off the table. Keith then wrapped an arm around Lance’s waist, pulling him flush against his chest as Keith kissed Lance passionately on the lips, startling the Cuban before he felt his knees weaken slightly more and his lips melt with Keith’s as he eagerly kissed back. They each pulled back when Red meows again, getting both their attentions. Laughing quietly, they both stepped back from each other a little out of breath and flushing. Keith smiles at Lance again as he holds out the rose towards him, encouraging Lance to take it.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t take you out, but I hope you don’t mind if we have that date here instead?” Keith asked a little unsure. Lance smiled and wrapped his arms around Keith’s neck, pulling him in close and pecking him on the lips before ducking his forehead against Keith’s.

“I don’t mind as long as I’m with you,” he whispered making Keith blush and they met each others lips again.

They pulled away from each other after a few minutes, as Keith lured Lance to the table and pulled out his chair like a gentlemen making Lance chuckle. Keith took his seat opposite him.

“Seriously, this is probably the most romantic thing anyones ever done for me.” Lance admitted face flushing which Keith smiled, appreciating the color.

“Well I kinda got the idea from a romcom so I’m not exactly superman, but at least I can cook decently.” Keith states making Lance laugh and they began to dig into their food. Keith casually asked about Lance’s work which Lance nearly spat his wine out as he remembered some incident that had happened yesterday.

“Oh you will not believe what went down yesterday!” Lance began as he animatedly told Keith the story of how he had to put three kids in timeout for starting a paint war that thankfully ended just as it began before the whole class joined in.

“I had to clean up all the paint stains around the room, clean up the kids, and call the parents explaining why they needed to send their kids clothes to change and how theirs got ruined in the first place. Two of the parents I talked to were understanding, but this one woman Keith, jesus christ, she completely blamed me for the incident saying I should have been watching them in the first place? Excuse me lady, you come do my job and see how hard it is to teach and keep an eye on two dozen five year olds at once! I swear the audacity of some of these parents, some of them are nice, but others are just difficult to deal with-”

Keith felt kinda bad tuning out a little after that but he was distracted by Lance and how cute and expressive he was even when he was a little miffed. Keith smiled watching as Lance waved his hands around, raving about some of the parents he’s dealt with in the past. It seemed like he could use a distraction from the rough day hes had. Keith bit his lip trying to contain himself from reaching over and grabbing his cute face and planting a kiss on his lips when he opens his mouth and basically blurts;

“You’re so cute right now.”

Everything goes quiet except for the ringing in Keith’s ears which sounded alot like alarm bells in his head saying he fucked up for interrupting like that, but they fade away when he sees Lance chuckle and blush looking away from Keith.

Lance on the other hand felt like he was on fire. Good thing he was in a fire station then.

Lance looked away from Keith feeling embarrassed from the positive attention Keith was practically showering him with, the surprise date, food, rose, and their kiss earlier. All this attention focused on him, he's never been with someone who put so much effort like this. 'Keith deserved to be showered in affection as well,' Lance thought determined.

He cleared his throat and once he had Keith’s unwavering attention on him, Lance confidently looked into his eyes and said; “You look good yourself. Your eyes remind me of the galaxy and I’m lost in them.”  Keith choked on his food, shocked and glanced down, feeling his face heating up now.

‘This is too much, this was how I’m gonna go out in life, sitting in front of a ridiculously cute man calling me pretty,’ Keith thought trying to rapidly figure out what to say next.

“Th-thank you. Your eyes are really nice as well.” Keith stammered, still not looking up and seeing Lance who was also embarrassed.

It wasn’t until he heard Lance’s quiet thank you he looked up and seen Lance’s red face sipping his wine that Keith realized he wanted to kiss that face again and show him how much he adored him. With new confidence flowing through him, going by instinct alone, Keith picked up his wineglass and chugged the rest of the wine down, surprising Lance. When Keith finished, he placed it back down and breathed heavily as he gazed back at Lance with a new hunger that made Lance shiver a little. 

“You wanna make out now because I’d really like to kiss your face.” Keith asked, or well demanded, but Lance didn’t mind at all. Tipping his head back as well as his glass, Lance finished his wine and gazed back at Keith ready.

“Let’s do this.” He said jumping up and heading over to the other side of the table where Keith was and planting himself in Keith’s lap, both his legs on either side of Keith’s hips while Keith circled his arms around Lance’s waist.

Their lips met each others again and both men sank into the others arms, feeling and enjoying the others presence. Lance carded his fingers through Keith’s hair, slightly mussing up the slicked back hair but enjoying the soft, silky strands through his finger tips. Keith’s arms were gripping Lance’s waist and back, using his strength to hold him in place and sending shivers through Lance at the thought of being manhandled by Keith.

As if sensing his inner desire, Keith raised one hand to Lance’s neck and pressed his palm against the back of it, forcing Lance closer as they explored each others mouths, biting lightly and pushing tongues. They pulled back with a gasp, getting as much breath as their starving lungs could get as they stared into each others eyes, forgetting everything else around them.

“Keith, remember I wanted a redo of earlier?” Lance suddenly asked as he pressed his forehead against Keith’s. One of his fingers tracing along Keith’s jawline and neck to the ends of his hair. Keith nodded swallowing as he tried to even his voice.

“Ye-yeah go ahead,” he prompted watching closely as Lance pulled back and rested his forearms against Keith’s shoulders now, leaning back to look at him a serious expression on his face. Keith would be lying if he said he wasn’t turned on by that look. Despite his overall goofy nature, Lance could be serious at times and right now Keith was reminded of how sexy he looked during those times, especially here on his lap. Keith could tell he was definitely getting hard from all this.

“Keith, back then I was an asshole and I admit a little unfair to you at times-” Keith snorted and flinched when Lance flicked him.

“Anyways, I didn’t notice then how I was actually attracted to you, your moody rebellious attitude, your passionate drive to help others and sense of justice, your weird sense of humor and how cutely obsessed you are with conspiracies. You are the most amazing and beautiful person in the world to me, if I could go back in time, I would kick high school me in the ass and make him realize how cool you are, so this could’ve happened way sooner probably. I know it’s a little too soon today but I really, really like you Keith and I hope you feel the same way…Unless this is an extreme setup to get in my pants, which not gonna lie, is definitely working.” Lance added making Keith snort and break his moment of infatuation, realizing what a huge dork Lance is.

“Jesus christ Lance. I’m not that much a dick, I really care for you too and don’t beat yourself up about high school too much. Some figure it out earlier than others, what matters most is you’re here now and I couldn’t be more happier than this moment, with you in my arms.” Keith stated gently tugging Lance closer and looking into those beautiful ocean blues.

Lance smiled and just as they were about to kiss again, Lance put a finger to Keith’s lips laughing lightly at the irritated scowl on Keith’s face for being interrupted.

“Oh one last thing, Keith Kogane would you do me the honor of being my wonderful boyfriend? Who I shall spoil in memes and cookies? And the occasional mini muffin basket from one of the children’s parents?” Lance asked beaming as he hugged Keith to his chest ignoring Keith’s impatient growl.

“Yes already, jesus.” Keith muttered rolling his eyes, but smiled when Lance cheered and pecked his cheek with his lips.

“It’s like being in a romcom!” Lance gasped sarcastically as Keith lunged forward and attacked Lance’s neck with kisses, tickling Lance in the process.

Lance wiggles a little in his grip, knowing the movement was causing a stir in Keith’s pants, as well as Lance’s. So he moved, planning on kissing Keith back till he felt his dick stir down below and paused. 

They both glanced down realizing how incredibly heated things had gotten. Blushing, both men turned away slightly until Keith gently grabbed Lance’s chin with his fingers and kissed him softly on the lips as if asking for permission.

“We don’t have to do anything tonight, but I’m willing if you want to.” Keith said simply. Lance swallowed, feeling more heat rising and gently stood up, taking Keith’s hand, tugging him up with him suggestive. 

“I want to.” Lance breathed, their lips mere inches from each other before kissing again.

While Lance explored Keith’s mouth, finding the taste fantastic, he felt air escape his lungs as his feet were swept out from underneath him and he was flying for one second till a pair of arms were wrapped around his waist and under his knees, holding him against a slight but firm chest.

Lance blinked confused and realized Keith had swept him off his feet, literally!

'Oh my god, I’m a disney princess,' Lance thought flushing as Keith gazed down at him with a prideful smirk that turned Lance on.

“I’d say you’ve been officially wooed by yours truly.” Keith declared and chuckled seeing Lance’s face flush.

“Wait till I get the next date, I’ll woo the pants off you!” Lance countered, wrapping his arms tightly against Keith’s neck as he carried them through the doorway, blowing out candles along the way.

“I don’t think you’ll have to wait long.” Keith pointed out as he carried Lance over to the couch, their lips meeting again. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So much swooning! So I can't write smut yet, I'm not too confidant in my abilities so I'm just gonna leave it vaguely implied. If anyone would like to write smut of this, I'd be okay with that! Hope ya'll enjoyed!


	11. You Handle That Hose Well, Wanna Handle Mine?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some fluff, strip apples to apples, past relationships, and more fluff!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is two weeks late or something, I've been having a tough time and hadn't felt like writing but the good news is, I'm back and mostly have this story finished! I just have the final chapter and the epilogue to do. Of course this series isn't over after that as I have a bunch of oneshots planned for this story, cuz theres too much ideas for this au to only be crammed in one fic.

Lance sighs running his fingers through Keith’s locks while the firefighter nuzzled into his bare chest. It was late at night, they were laying in bed resting with Lance thinking back on the past few weeks.

It had been two weeks since that romantic firehouse date Keith had surprised Lance with, and ever since then, they’d been steadily dating here and there each week wanting to spend time with each other as much as they could. They constantly texted each other, whether it was some new meme Lance wanted to show Keith, who didn’t really get it, but liked them anyways. He had also visited Lance at the school a couple more times, even joining in on coloring with some of the kids, which Keith was very proud of his firetruck picture, thank you very much. Lance would even meet up with Keith at the station and bring him dinner when he had to work nights.

There was also their actual date-dates, which Lance had taken to calling them, ‘their magical evenings of fun and wonder’, much to Keith’s annoyance because just call them dates Lance, we’re adults now. Or trying to be.

Lance’s only response was to blow a raspberry and then be tickled nearly to death by Keith in retaliation. The whole experience was very romantic in Lance’s opinion. Lance had probably wooed Keith about a dozen times since that iconic date and because a little part of him that was always competitive, he grew up with seven siblings after all, he tried to outdo Keith’s romantic side. It steadily grew into a competition over who was the most romantic. Fortunately, Keith was also very competitive as Lance also had the pants wooed off him a dozen times.

Lance finally offered a truce which Keith agreed.

As much fun as these dates were they both could tell they were reaching a point where they were getting dangerously too competitive and neither of them liked to lose. Which was also partially why whenever they had game night with Hunk and Pidge they rarely played against each other. That and they were also banned. 

Lance paused his musings and focused back on Keith, who was starting to stir from Lance’s mesmerizing touch. Lance pulled his hand back and wrapped it around Keith’s waist as he nuzzled his face into Keith’s hair, breathing in the scent, wanting this peacefulness to last.

Tonight he had prepared the truce dinner where he had invited Keith over for just a casual evening of enjoying dinner with him, and watching whatever was on Netflix, which Keith didn’t know that ‘Netflix and chill’ actually implied something more than just that. Which made it more hilarious when Lance explained it to him.

He also had him bring Red over because he wanted his beautiful daughter to meet Keith’s daughter, which Keith quickly told him never to refer Red as his ‘daughter’ ever again. The two cats had regarded each other stiffly at first, both of them just blinking at each other till finally their curiosity outgrew their caution and the two went from sniffing each other carefully to full on snuggling in the corner on top of Blue’s favorite bed of newspapers.

And of course, Lance provided a wonderful meal his mama had taught him, her take on a classic dish called ropa vieja, which Keith had thirds, because **GOD** was this food amazing and he promptly told Lance so. 

“I remember you burned cupcakes in Home Ec, how the hell do you go from that to making this deliciousness?” Keith demanded, his mouth full of beef and rice.

Lance merely shrugged while putting a plate of guava pastelitos on the table smirking as Keith’s face lit up seeing them.

“I had decent, wonderful teachers at home. My mama and abuela of course! They taught me everything I needed to know, my mom was not gonna let any of her kids go into the world without at least learning how to cook rice. If any of my sisters try to tell you they’re better than me, don’t listen to them, they’re garbage.” Lance insisted making Keith snort. He swallowed his mouthful and reached for a pastelito.

“I’ll try to keep that in mind while they’re asking me invasive questions about our relationship.” Keith muttered dryly as he chewed on the puff pastry. Somehow, Vanessa had gotten a hold of the fire station number and asked for Keith just to be nosey which confused and slightly terrified Keith at the same time. Lance shrugged.

“Hey its part of the family. Vanessa gets like this with everyone in the family, shes deemed herself the family matchmaker,” Lance rolled his eyes clearly done with his sisters shit.

“Although, it’s not my sisters you have to worry about though.” Lance lifted his brows wiggling them suggestively making Keith pause.

“Wait, then who do I need to worry about? I swear if you gave me a quiz on your family, I’d study for hours and still won’t know the answers,” Keith grumbled.

Lance gasped, placing a hand on his heart in mock offense and moved the pastelitos away from Keith despite his grabby hands and mumbled complaints.

“First of all, how dare you, I give you food, pastries, beer, and this is how you treat your boyfriend?” Lance demanded, placing a hand over his eyes while Keith watched unamused.

“I fixed your smoke detector as well as other things in your decrepit apartment, if anything you owe me this food-”

“Shush Keith! I’m not finished! As I was saying, second of all, my sisters are the least invasive of my family members, including Vanessa, that title is reserved for my abuela. She’s feisty, full of wisdom and has a heart of gold! She can weaken you without you knowing and then attack with her sweets and hugs! You’ll never expect it!” Lance cautioned looking so serious Keith couldn’t help but chuckle a little.

“Really? Your tiny abuela?” He laughed as Lance gaped at him.

“It’s not funny Keith! This is your life at stake here!”

“How can I not laugh? You paint your abuela as a menacing, six foot lady with a pistol packing in her handbag.”

“I did no such thing! But yes she does pack a pistol in her purse actually. She also frequently hunts with some of her buddies.”

They had bickered playfully after that which eventually turned into kissing, then full on making out. Lance had to gently remove Blue and Red from his bedroom, placing Blue on the couch, Red following, and with a light pat on Blue's head, he ran back to his room where a half dressed fireman was beckoning to him and shut his door where they continued ‘bickering’ for a couple more hours.

Now here they were, Keith curled up in Lance’s arms, lost to sleep with Lance nuzzling against his head. He hears Keith shift and then a sleepy “Lance?” before the other yawned, bringing Lance to duck down and kissed Keith’s cheek and cuddling him closer.

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to wake you.” Lance whispered, kissing along Keith’s jawline as the other moaned quietly, feeling himself grow more awake than anything else.

“Judging by your actions you don’t seem very sorry.” Keith pointed out, smiling when Lance’s breathy chuckle tickled the skin where his neck and shoulders met.

“Well maybe thats your fault for looking so cute here in my bed.” Lance suggested kissing his collarbone before gently biting it a little smirking in amusement when Keith squirmed under him.

“Or maybe you don’t have any impulse control?” Keith teased before turning Lance’s chin so he could bite and suck at his neck. Lance gasped a little as he let Keith’s lips wander over his sensitive skin, moaning as Keith sucked harder.

“Says the guy about to give me a hickie! Ease up, I can’t let the kids see me with this! What will they think? I’ll be ostracized!” Lance bemoaned making Keith chuckle as he leaned back smirking.

“Sorry, you’re just so irresistible like this honestly.” Keth said kissing Lance and drawing him into his arms, flipping the two so Lance was on his back now looking up at Keith.

“Round 2?” Lance smirked which Keith hummed before ducking his head to grab Lance’s lips roughly with his own.

 

                                                                            ______________________________

 

Lance screeched in terror as Pidge chased him around the living room with the one good throw pillow they had been sitting on. 

Hunk just continued petting Blue as she sat in his lap demanding head scratches, while the other two humans watched in amusement as Lance tripped and face planted into the floor with Pidge jumping on his back to hit his head with the pillow repeatedly.

“Keith, avenge me!” Lance cried as Pidge continued beating him with the throw pillow. Keith merely shook his head.

“They warned you several times they would kick your ass if you blue-shell them at Mario Kart and did you listen? Nooooooo,” Keith smirked as he watched Pidge smack Lance one last time before admitting they were finished and crawled off the lanky man’s sprawled out form.

“Whew, that took alot of energy, hes pretty feisty. But I’m sure you know that already Keith.” Pidge glanced smugly over at Keith who turned bright red sputtering, while Hunk just groaned.

“Guys let’s not do this, we barely started on game night! I don’t want to have to send anybody home but I will do it gosh darn it! Also it was me who blue-shelled, Pidge.” Hunk admitted before firmly shaking one finger which Pidge automatically straightened their posture while Keith just blew the hair out of his face.

“You’ve been texting Shiro alot haven’t you?” Keith accused which Hunk just shrugged. Keith had started hanging out with Pidge and Hunk more, and in the meantime the two had met Shiro and included him into the group.

“We’ve been swapping recipes back and forth and I’ve given him a few cooking tips is all. Besides he’s like the dad friend of our group, speaking of which, we should invite him to the next game night! He’ll fit right in!” Hunk stated which Lance whooped from his position, still lying face flat on the floor. Keith sighed.

“Lance get off the floor, I don’t want to listen to you complain later about how dirty you got. Also, why are you so excited about Shiro joining us? Not that I have a problem with that idea, but I can’t see him sitting down and playing something like Mario Kart.” Lance rolled over, propping his chin in one hand the other placed teasingly on his hip while he wiggled his eyebrows at Keith who just flipped him the bird in response. Chuckling, Lance sat up finally and brushed the dirt off his shirt.

“Shiro’s my hero man. Of course I want him to hang out with us. You also said the same thing yourself a week ago when you joined us and now you’re practically shoving us out of the way to get to the controllers.” Lance pointed out, ignoring Keith’s grumbled “That was one time..”

“So yeah get Shiro to come over and we can always get him to join us on our.. _other exciting games…_ ”

“Lance we are not playing strip apples to apples!”

“Oh come on Hunk!”

Keith would’ve laughed at his boyfriends indignant reaction, as well as reminding himself to ask what strip apples to apples was later when they were in private, when he noticed Pidge being awfully quiet and looked to where they were sitting, texting someone incredibly fast.

“Pidge who are you texting?” Keith asked curiously while Lance and Hunk continued their discussion on why strip apples to apples should be a first game night type of game.

“Just texting Shiro, telling him to come join us.” They said smirking when Keith’s eyes bugged and he reached for Pidge’s phone.

“Pidge no, don’t bother him! He’s not interested in our-”

“He says hes on his way and hes bringing beer. He says, ‘hope you nerds are ready to get trashed’ and he told me to show Keith this thing he found.” Pidge turned the phone screen towards Keith who glanced at it curiously before drawing back in disgust when he saw,

‘(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻’ .

“Dammit Shiro!” Keith complained, whipping out his phone to send Shiro about a dozen middle fingers emojis which Shiro sent him a heart in response.

“Honestly, and he's supposed to be the grownup of this group.” Keith grumbled.

 

                                                                          ____________________________

 

“So inviting Shiro may have been a mistake after all…”

“Oh really Pidge, what was your first clue?”

They were all seated at Lance’s dining table which Shiro had said was ‘the stablest looking thing in Lance’s apartment honestly’ and after about a dozen rounds on Mario Kart, which Shiro was surprisingly savage at, giving Pidge and Lance both a run for their money, they were now sitting at Lance’s dining room table. Drinking beer and playing strip apples to apples.

“This was the biggest mistake of my life. And yes Hunk this is even worse than my whole relationship with Nyma so dont even bring that up!” Lance insisted which Hunk put up his hands placatingly crying, “I wasn’t, chill dude.”

“Who’s Nyma?” Keith asked out of curiosity because he needed a distraction and right now he felt his gaze wandering over to a certain Cubans lean muscles and broad shoulders that were currently bare from the lack of shirt.

Shiro may come across as the polite, dad-type friend, but he is ruthless when it comes to beating others in childish games even if they involved stripping. So far the other four had been close to considerably beaten, Lance only in his boxers while Keith was still wearing his and a shirt. Hunk was in nothing but his pants and underwear while with Pidge, they had been stripping them of their technological gadgets instead of clothes. Pidge was down to an old ipod nano from the year 2006 they carried around for emergencies only. Shiro on the other hand, only lost a shoe. A freakin shoe.

Shiro whistled at Keith’s question while Pidge and Hunk looked back at their cards, studying them unsure. Keith glanced over at his boyfriend who was blushing and looking uncomfortable which was new for Keith to see.

“Oh uh she’s just an ex. I haven’t mentioned her before, but it didn’t end too well.” Lance stated. Pidge scoffed turning all eyes back to them as they glared at their cards.

“Understatement of the century, that bitch chained you up to a tree and stole your car.”

“Look, can we not talk about it? The important thing is..I choose whoever put ‘driving off a cliff’  for ‘inspirational’.” Lance smirked deviously as Shiro sighed admitting defeat while the others whooped and hollered. Shiro made a show out of toeing off his other boot tossing it towards the door and picked up his cards again.

“I can't believe you picked ‘driving off a cliff’ over ‘motivational speaker’, doesn’t even make sense Lance.” Keith pointed out which Lance turned an eyebrow up at him.

“Don’t disrespect my humor like that Keith. You’re the one who chose Mothman for ‘wholesome’ so who really gets to judge who?”

“Hey! Mothman is a wholesome being, he probably has family out there somewhere…” Keith mumbled with a particular gleam in his eye.

“Oh crap. Did you awaken drunk conspiracy theorist Keith?” Shiro asked leaning away when Keith turned his sharp gaze to him.

“It’s not a conspiracy Shiro! He’s out there! Living amongst the trees!! And the fucking West Virginians!! Lance! You saw the documentary, tell him!”

“Babe, seeing and forcefully watching are two different things. Also I love you and shit but I’m not arguing with you about Shiro’s belief in Mothman’s whereabouts.”

Keith groaned frustrated before taking another swig of his beer. Shiro patted his back comfortingly.

“Ok are you guys done now? Cuz in case you losers forgot, we still have to take down Shiro! He only has two cards and the rest of us have five or six!” Pidge exclaimed, slapping their cards on the wood and glaring at all of them.

Hunk merely saluted while Lance and Keith shrugged. The game continued after that but unfortunately Shiro was declared the winner of strip apples to apples as he claimed the rest of the guys clothing and the last of Pidge’s technology. After some arguing and redressing, or in Pidge’s case, reclaiming their tech, the gang calmed down some. Mostly sharing stories about Lance and Keith respectively for laughs while the two lovebirds mostly cuddled on the couch, not paying the others any attention.

Finally after deeming themselves sober enough to leave the apartment, with some quick goodnights the trio shuffled themselves out, with a very stern Shiro reminding Lance to find a better apartment in that concerned fatherly voice he uses sometimes, which sent chills down Lance’s spine. With just the apartment to themselves, Lance and Keith headed to the bedroom as it was past two am now, thankful it was the weekend and they both didn’t have to work the next day. They got ready for bed and cuddled close together with Blue sleeping curled up at the foot of the bed. Red had been over earlier for game night but after all the noise had decided to kitty parkour her way outside, which Keith had shrugged saying Red could go wherever she wanted to.

“So I know its late and you probably don’t want to talk about it, but can I ask about this Nyma person? Or is it too personal?” Keith asked concerned as Lance sighed looking away.

“No its fine, I mean I knew we would eventually talk about our past relationships anyways, better now than never, I guess. I haven’t really told anyone aside from Hunk and Pidge and maybe Vanessa what went down between Nyma and I, but essentially it went like this: So before I met Nyma, I had only dated a handful of times. Maybe twice in high school with girls that didn’t give me the time of day and although I was a huge flirt, I never really found someone to connect with till I met Nyma in college during sophomore year and that was my first actual relationship.”

Lance glanced over at Keith who was looking at him intrigued and encouragingly, causing Lance to smile as he curled up, placing his head in the gap between Keith’s neck and shoulder, continuing with his story. 

“I’m sure as you already guessed, it didn’t end well between us. I was completely head over heels with her while she was mostly using me to make some ex’s of hers jealous and after I confronted her about it, she handcuffed me to a tree and stole my car. I got my car back eventually, but the damage was done and thankfully I never saw her again, but it kinda scared me away from dating for a while. I figured out my bisexuality later on after that, where I dated this one guy briefly during senior year but that didn’t work out too well either since he was mostly using me as well, but in a different way. After that, I just avoided dating and relationships for a while.” Lance admitted with a sigh.

Keith, who had been caressing Lance’s side with a brush of his hand, wanted to be closer to his boyfriend and used his hand to pull Lance tighter against him to kiss his temple, bringing a smile to Lance’s face as he did so.

“You’re too good for anyone honestly, even me.” Keith murmured and chuckled when Lance swatted his shoulder telling him how untrue that was.

“Lance, I want you to know how truly important you are to alot of people. Your family, friends, students, and coworkers all need you..as well as me. Please don’t forget that. If you ever feel insecure or self doubt again just remember that all those people love you and support you. Plus, I’ll kick anyones ass who makes you cry. Even my own ass.” Keith added seriously as Lance giggled into his chest. Lance leaned up to kiss him which Keith happily reciprocated.

As it was about to turn heated again Lance pulled back despite Keith’s soft grumbling.

“So I talked about my dating history, I’m curious to hear what yours was like.” Lance stated turning to Keith and popping his most dazzling smile that he did **NOT** use just to get what he wanted. Keith snorted, plopping his head back against the pillow trying his best to ignore Lance’s prompting kisses at his collarbone and chest.

“It wasn’t much of a dating history as it was mostly a little black book.” Lance sits up at that and grins mischievously down at him, making Keith raise an eyebrow in confusion.

“Oh? Keith are you telling me you were a good time only cowboy casanova?”

“What? Lance, no! I regret telling you I was born in Texas now, goddammit. And stop quoting country songs I don’t listen to country music.” Keith grumbled.

“…Yet you knew that was a country song I was referencing,”

“ANYWAYS, I never had any desire to date because I never found anyone I wanted to settle down with, like you. I mostly hooked up a few times here and there after graduating high school, but I never really heard back from any of the people I was with and I never contacted them again. Unless it was for bootycalls which was understandable, thats the only reason I wanted to see some of those guys again. Looking back on it, there was no one I hooked up with that I wanted to date so I didn’t feel any remorse for not doing anything more. One time I was actually paid by one of the guys I was with which was a funny conversation. In the end the guy genuinely felt really bad so he bought me a few drinks and let me take the money but still, it was slightly fucked up.” Keith explained sighing at the end.

“Only slightly?” Lance asked his eyebrows shooting up in surprise which Keith sighed.

“Ok it was a whole lot of fucked up.” Lance kissed his temple and cuddled closer again as they had shuffled apart from each other when they were talking.

It was quiet for a brief moment till Lance let out a cackle, his form shaking as he rolled away from Keith to clutch his stomach, almost kicking Blue off the bed in the process. Keith realizing Lance was laughing at him, aimed for Lance’s side closest to him and quickly punched it, which only made Lance laugh harder.

“Sorry, sorry, it was so funny picturing you and just you having this expression of morbidly okay-ness on your face while some guy mistakes you for a hooker. You gotta admit thats funny! You know, its kinda ironic how I was focused on finding relationships and dating, while you were the one all about one night stands. We fit together so perfectly, you complete me.” Lance grinned attaching himself next to Keith who rolled over onto his side to face his boyfriend.

Keith smiled caressing along Lance’s jawline kissing it before saying, “Maybe it was fate all along.” Lance chuckled kissing him on the nose before he pulled back and cocked an eyebrow.

“Yeah, maybe Mothman is behind all this, maybe he really is out there in West Virginia.” Lance laughed as Keith yanked the pillow out from behind and started smacking Lance all over.

“There have been documented sightings! He’s fucking out there Lance! In fucking West Virginia!” Keith declared as Lance began fighting back with his own pillow, laughing the whole time.

Blue proceeded to just jump off her human's bed knowing she wasn’t going to get any sleep at this point, especially with the other human yelling at her human about damning evidence while her human was trying not to burst from laughing so hard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song Lance was referencing was Carrie Underwood-Cowboy Cassanova. In this AU, Keith was born in Texas but he wasn't raised there. I've never had ropa vieja but after exploring several Cuban recipe websites, I'm gonna have to change that. Also, Lance's abuela is a badass. I look forward to writing her character.


	12. Wanna Tap into This Hydrant?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fire meet Lance. Lance meet fire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I keep doing this, I mean to update and then I don't. Also if anyone was at Animazement in Raleigh, NC this year, here's a small shout out to all the wonderful Voltron cosplayers I saw there! I didn't dress up so I was simply wearing mermaid leggings, trying to not look like garbage lol.

“Uncle Lance when is the heating going to be fixed? It feels like the beach in here!” Manny whined from his position on the couch. 

Lance looked up from the lesson plan he was currently having trouble getting started on, giving his nephew an imploring look.

“Buddy I told ya, I spoke to the landlord briefly about it and hes currently looking into getting it solved. Besides, think of it like it is summer! We can make popsicles! And if you get anymore warmer just take off your sweater.” Lance shrugged heading to his kitchen.

“I already took off my sweater! Im wearing a t-shirt and a pair of your shorts Uncle Lance.” Manny pointed out. Lance looked at his nephew pointedly who was wearing a pair of much too big shorts with the drawstring tied tightly. He then glanced down at his own attire which was a bit on the less modest side. It was mid-October, the chilly air outside giving everyone reason to start wearing sweaters and thick coats and wrapping up in hats and scarves to keep out the chill.

Except Lance was wearing none of that, but a large thin t-shirt from his college days, and booty shorts he usually wore to sleep in, or lounged in mostly to distract Keith during their movie nights. After all, what firefighter wouldn't be invested in Lance’s long tan legs.

“How about I make popsicles and if thats not enough, we’ll put our winter clothes back on and go stand outside for a bit. Alright?” Manny nodded his head seemingly pleased which Lance smiled perking up a little at the idea of popsicles and prepared to get the stuff for them ready. Not gonna lie, the popsicles were mostly for him too, he thought guiltily. Sometimes it was handy having a five year old at his apartment most of the week since it justified him having dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets in his freezer.

Lance liked fun food ok?

And nobody, especially Keith, was gonna judge him for the garbage he eats. Except maybe his Mama which was why he threw out most of his processed junk food before she visited.

Once the popsicles were finished, Lance pulled a grape one out and handed it to Manny since purple was his favorite color for the day while Lance kept the red one for himself. He had a blue one in his freezer to offer Keith later when he came over. Now they were sitting on the couch licking their popsicles, watching some Adventure Time, which Manny kept pointing out how the main character, named Flynn or something, sounded alot like Lance. Lance scoffed at the idea, he couldn’t hear the similarities at all.

Blue was curled up in his lap purring happily while the two gently laughed and shared jokes about the show and the school days events.

“When is Keith going to visit again? Tammy and Jason said they want to ask him more questions about his motorcycle.” Lance almost choked on the popsicle he was eating beofe slightly coughing and blushing.

“Uh I don’t know kiddo, that depends on Keith’s schedule. Hes a firefighter, hes really busy saving lives and stuff you know?” Which Manny nodded earnestly probably remembering all the things he learned at Safety Day which made Lance so proud.

“Yeah hes so strong and hes not afraid of anything!” Manny beamed. Oh christ that is just too cute, Lance thought. He definitely had to tell Keith about this, Keith would just get so embarrassed and flustered, its so cute!

As Lance was about to tell Manny he could check with Keith tonight when he was available again, he smelt something that seemed…

Off.

“Uncle Lance is something burning?” Manny asked.

“No, I’m not cooking anything…I smell it too though.” Lance frowned smelling the burning scent even more now.

Feeling uneasy, Lance headed over to the kitchen checking the stove, oven and microwave but as he suspected, there wasn’t anything cooking or heating up. Lance also checked the bathroom in case he left his hair straightener on, although he hadn’t used it today since that damn cowlick of his wasn’t being stubborn for once. Confused now, Lance headed over to the heater which had the room temperature on it to see if it was at the 85 degree mark it had been at the last time he checked only to read it at almost 98 now.

What the fuck, Lance thought confused till Manny shouted in alarm, spooking the ever-loving shit out of Lance as he spun around quickly to defend his nephew from any possible danger.

“Uncle Lance! Look!” Manny cried in distress as he pointed towards the front door. Lance turned sharply then gasped freezing as he idly saw a little bit of smoke rising from underneath his door and starting to filter into his apartment.

Shit, Lance thought repeatedly while he stood there frozen as he watched the slightly wispy smoke rising into his apartment before Manny attacked his legs nearly knocking the tall man over and thankfully pulling him out of his own shock.

“Uncle Lance! We need to get out!” Manny shouted clinging to his uncles leg. Blue who was wide awake now could sense the danger and was steadily lurking towards the window. Lance watched as she climbed through the stuck window with enough wiggle room for her to leap out. Lance shouted her name and dove towards the window trying to nudge it open more only to see Blue standing outside four floors down, watching him from below as if expecting him to follow her.

"Blue! You crazy cat! Don't be so reckless like that again! That's Red's personality!" Lance scolded. Blue simply meowed at him urgently in response. 

At least shes out of here and fine, Lance breathed. He rushed to the other window hoping to get that one to budge open but remembered his apartment didn’t have a fire escape anymore as it had completely rusted over, the metal too weak to support a single person so the landlord had it removed months ago. 

Of course a fire would happen at a time he didn’t have a fire escape!

Lance continued to think, pulling Manny close and thinking hard while gently comforting the small boy that everything was going to be alright.

Lance then put a hand to the wood floor feeling only slight heat from underneath and nodded to himself knowing they had a little bit of time to get out of there. Lance immediately began looking for a new plan, remembering other emergency exits as Manny clung to him, his death grip turning his knuckles pale. He had to get his nephew out at least. There were fire escapes on the east side of the building, he could probably get Manny to another apartment and get him down the escape…

Lance then got an idea.

“Quick Manny, I’m going to get us out of here but you have to listen to me and keep calm okay?” Manny nodded his head a small tear lurking in the corner of his eye which Lance wiped away as he smiled gently down at him and began speaking more softly, not wanting to scare him any further.

“Mrs. Nylund has a fire escape so we’re going to go over to her apartment and use it ok? She may need some assistance as well.” Lance explained remembering his neighbor was a bit hearing impaired due to her age and probably wasn’t as sharp as she definitely was in her youth. Manny nodded again, this time more determined which Lance pat his back and they stepped towards the door which now had darker smoke spilling out from underneath it. Lance felt the door, feeling how warm it was and knowing that even though they were typically not supposed to open a door with smoke coming from underneath it, they really had no choice otherwise they’d be sitting ducks about to be barbecued.

It was just a quick dash down the hall, he could get them over there in time. Hopefully. Lance felt his palms grow clammy and turned to his nephew once more. 

“Manny hold your shirt over your nose like this and stay low okay? Just like what the firemen taught us.” Lance instructed as they both pulled their shirts up to cover their nose and mouths as Lance finally turned the doorknob and flung it, letting the door hit the wall as smoke collapsed into his apartment. Lance realizing, he didn’t have shoes and Manny didn’t have any warmer clothes on, decided it was too late to turn back now and ducked his head hunching his back over which Manny copied him although he didn’t really need to since he was small enough the smoke wouldn’t get to him immediately. Lance crawled through the hall watching the smoke filter through the air now and feeling the heat grow hotter under his palms and knees. Manny scooted along beside him, struggling to keep up with Lance. Lance fearfully thought about Manny being trapped in this place, in the fire itself, which prompted him to harden his gaze and hurry along, eventually getting to his feet and staying low as he grabbed Manny and kept a tight grip on his arm. Lance looked back, feeling himself starting to sweat buckets now, as the smoke was swallowing the doorway to his apartment, thankfully not quite grey yet, and still mostly transparent, indicating Lance still had a bit of time.

Lance keeping his head down, banged on Mrs. Nylund’s door hoping the woman could hear his banging before he tried the lock feeling it warming under his fingers. Lance frowned as he tried to open the door but it remained shut indicating it was locked. Manny let out a whimper which set Lance into fuck-it-mode as he rammed his shoulder repeatedly into the door hoping to weaken it some before he broke the door open. The wooden slab swinging wildly as it crashed into the wall while Lance ducked into the apartment, pulling Manny inside with him. 

Mrs. Nylund who had been wrestling with her windows, rushed over to Lance, or more like hobbled quickly, and began hysterically screaming about the fire and her precious cats which Lance quickly held her mostly to shut her up because her panicking wasn’t helping anyone and to offer some comfort as well.

“Mrs. Nylund, we have to get out of here, where’s your fire escape?” Lance demanded which she pointed towards the end of her living room or what Lance could see as the smoke that had been filtering into the room was now a light grey, translucent smoke. That wasn’t good.

“Ok I’m going to get this window open and you can crawl out with Manny as well.” Lance explained, pulling all his weight into his arms and planting his feet for extra power. Lance gritted his teeth pulling the window and making it budge inch by inch while the three residents listened at the cackling of the flames about a floor or two below theirs. Finally with every last muscle power and grit, Lance managed to ease the window open slowly and into bits to where he knew Manny could slide through. Lance then peeked out seeing the rusty fire escape which several other residents were using to escape the building, towards the huge crowd in the street some consisting of a few firetrucks and EMTs. Lance breathed a sigh of relief knowing they would be safe and helped Manny climb up to the window.

“Manny I want you to climb down the escape ok? Be careful, just climb down like a ladder, you’ll be fine as long as you don’t look down. One of the firefighters is already down there waiting, she’ll help you the rest of the way ok?” Lance asked gently as he cupped his nephews face in his hands. Manny nodded, tears pouring out of his eyes now, whether from the smoke or him being scared, most likely a combination of both.

“I love you Uncle Lance.” Manny hiccuped hugging Lance’s hands in his which Lance smiled and drew Manny to his chest quickly before easing him out, setting him down outside on the escape.

“I love you too buddy. I’ll be down there with you soon I promise. Go on, I’ll be down there in a second.” Lance promised shooing Manny down the ladder. Manny climbed down the rusted ladder to the next level of the escape glancing back up nervously every now and then. As Lance set one foot out on the escape, the metal groaned a little from all the weight of Manny and the other residents using the ladder making Lance pull himself back into the apartment.

“What’s going on dear?” Mrs. Nylund asked as she looked back and forth between Lance and her open doorway where they could see the orange light from the flames as it flickered downstairs.

“The fire escape is so rusted it won’t old my weight plus all those other people, we might have to wait for the others to get off first or else it’ll fall and then others will be stuck in the building.” Lance explained a bit frustrated. Mrs. Nylund shook her head.

“Darlin' it might be too late we can’t wait that long. We’re the only ones higher than anyone else.” She pointed out. Lance merely watched Manny who continued climbing down, the female firefighter from earlier having spotted him and shouting encouraging phrases to help him down which Lance nodded appreciatively when she made eye contact.  Manny clung to the firefighter as she scooped him off the ladder and carried him over to one of the ambulances with Manny kicking in her grip and shouting for his uncle, for them to save him.

Lance merely watched as the last few residents trickled off the escape, the rusted metal looking more wore down and broken than before. Lance turned to Mrs. Nylund and offered her a helping hand.

“C’mon Mrs. Nylund, I think it’ll hold for you to go down.” Mrs. Nylund stopped at the window and shook her head.

“I’m not leaving you alone up here!” She scolded in that grandmother tone Lance recognized as his own abuela used time to time.

“You don’t have a choice. The fire escape can’t hold both of us.” Lance stated and proceeded to help her out the window, the roar of the fire behind them as it crept toward their floor, inching towards destruction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the shortness of this chapter, but there are big things to come soon. So for some good news(I guess I'll call it that) I am technically finished with the story! I just have to write the epilogue, get ready for one fluffy ending to end all fluffy endings folks.


	13. I’m On Fire! Care to Put Me Out?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blue is Lassie. Hunk and Pidge worry for their friend. Keith makes a guest appearance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will be updating all my fanfics this week! Hopefully this will be finished by the end of this month! I'm still working on the epilogue so that may take some time.

Pidge anxiously glanced up from their phone, eyes warily scanning over the chaos around them.The apartment building was on fire, the local radio station immediately reporting to the public about the incident and the proper authorities rushing around to help the victims. Pidge was only there because they recognized the address and wanted to make sure their friend was ok and safe. 

Only Lance was nowhere to be seen.

Pidge had checked with the EMT's and a few of the firefighters, noticing Shiro and Keith hadn’t gotten there yet but none of the people they spoke to had seen a person resembling their friend.

Biting their lip now, Pidge went back to texting Hunk, standing with about over a dozen other citizens safely behind the caution tape. Pidge was relaying everything that was going on to Hunk at the moment who was rushing over to the scene to check on their friend as well. Pidge watched the flames spiraling out of the top of the building now, worry increasing each second, hoping Lance was okay and had gotten out when Hunk’s familiar footsteps rushed over to them and swept Pidge up in a Hunk-hug.

“He’s gonna be okay Pidge, I know he is.” Hunk comforted more to himself while Pidge sniffed, forcing the tears from leaking as they returned the hug.

“None of the firefighters here have seen him and the EMT's haven’t either! Hunk, what if hes still in there? We need to do something!” Pidge cried frustrated. Hunk merely placed his hands on the smaller persons shoulders and bit his lip, as if he was contemplating his next words.

“Pidge I’m sure hes fine, knowing him hes probably helping someone else right now and thats why we can’t find him. Have you texted him?” Hunk asked as Pidge’s eyes widened, probably forgetting that was an option and immediately waved Hunk away. Hunk smiled as he heard the smaller one mumble a few curses towards themselves forgetting that texting was indeed a thing.

Hunk pulled out his own phone as well, sending Lance a quick text as well, hoping his closest buddy would respond to either one of them.

After sending it, Hunk gazed at the fire. Even from a respectable distance you could feel the intense heat as the pathetic building was easily swallowed by the bright yellow-orange flames. Hunk even noticed a few fire escapes had fallen off, showing how the building was in such a sad disrepair, the landlord was gonna have a field day with lawsuits. Hell, Hunk would sue the man if he could for endangering his best bro before the fire. Hunk idly wondered where the son of a snitch went off to when he heard a tiny, desperate mewling and froze.

“Blue?” Hunk called, Pidge even freezing and looking around for the grey cat when they both spotted her at the same time.

“Blue! You’re safe! Have you seen Lance?” Hunk asked, cradling the small cat in his huge arms as Blue nuzzled into him. Pidge gave Hunk a slightly unimpressed look.

“Hunk shes a cat, not Lassie.” Pidge explained till Blue wiggled in Hunk’s arms indicating she wanted to be put down. Hunk did as she wished nervously, hoping the cat wouldn’t go back to the fire when she did exactly that, walking towards the burning building.

“Blue no!! Your dad will kill me, assuming hes still alive and safe that is..” Hunk trailed off.

Blue looked back at them, her blue eyes blinking as if trying to communicate to them when she walked towards the fire before turning back to them waiting. Pidge paused confused before an idea struck them.

“Wait shes really pulling a Lassie on us Hunk!”

“Well duh! This cat puts Lassie to shame! I wonder what she's trying to say though..”

Pidge rolled their eyes. “Gee I don’t know what it could possibly be considering we’re standing outside Lance’s burning building with his cat trying to communicate to us and no Lance around. This is quite the puzzler I tell you, a real head scratcher.” Hunk gave Pidge a flat look.

“Just questioning how ridiculous the whole situation is Pidge, theres no need for your small, sassy attitude right now. Besides cats are wise, maybe she rescued Lance and is leading us to where he is.”

Blue perked up at the mention of her humans name and circled around their legs meowing repeatedly before leading them toward the fire and stopping in front of the building.

“Um..Hunk? If thats the case, I’m not sure whatever shes implying indicates Lance is safe.” Pidge replied hesitantly as they watched in horror as Blue inclined her head towards the building, specifically looking at a window on the fourth floor. Both of their faces paled, now realizing the worst when Hunk’s phone sent a text alert. He glanced down and nearly jumped when he saw the person texting him was Lance.

                                                                            __________________________

Okay, it was safe to say that Lance was panicking a little. Okay more like alot.

He was helping Mrs. Nylund out of the window onto the already deteriorating fire escape, which seemed to be closer and closer to collapsing after taking the brunt of the other resident's weights. Lance just hoped he could get Mrs. Nylund and himself down in time. The flames were spreading through the floors, judging by the smoke pouring out of the first and second floor windows. Outside it was just as chaotic with residents spilling out, others trying to help their family or friends down. There were already ambulances with the EMT's checking out people. Lance hoped Manny was somewhere over in that direction, so long as he stayed away from the building, Lance knew he was safe.

Now if only he could get himself safe.

“C’mon Mrs. Nylund you’re almost out there.” Lance coaxed, gently keeping his arms wrapped around the elderly woman’s frame as she was tucked out the window, her frail and aching bones making it hard to bend in some places.

“Lance honey, I don’t think I can do this, listen you’re younger than me, I’ve lived my life you should go down first. The fire escape can’t hold any more weight soon.” Mrs. Nylund reasoned which Lance shook his head defiantly.

“I’m not gonna leave you! You’re just as worthy of living through this as I am! Age has nothing to do with it!” Lance cried. Okay he knew he was getting overly emotional but dammit, this woman reminded him of his own abuela at times, he couldn’t just leave her!

Lance waved down the female firefighter from earlier who had come back to help them out again apparently.

Lance felt his phone vibrate in his shorts pocket, which understandably he shouldn’t stop to check his phone messages during a fire but it could be Keith messaging him, and he would help Lance in this situation. Lance idly watched Mrs. Nylund begin her slow trek down the escape, the metal groaning and creaking at the slightest move before he pulled out his phone to read a message he got from Hunk and not Keith like he hoped.

‘DUDE WE’RE OUTSIDE YOUR BUILDING! ARE YOU OK? PLEASE TELL ME YOU’RE SOMEWHERE SAFE!’

Dude chill, Lance thought but as he gazed at the smoke piling into the apartment he realized Hunk’s panic was kinda justified. Lance immediately texted back, looking outside to keep an eye on Mrs. Nylund, who was getting closer to the ground it seemed like.

‘I’m ok or I will be. I’m still trapped inside but don’t worry I’m about to go down the fire escape after Mrs. Nylund gets down first! Blue and Manny are both out, try to find them for me ok?’

Lance glanced up sharply, hearing a low groaning sound and dashed to the window quickly to see Mrs. Nylund falling to the ground as the fire escape had lost its stability and was finally collapsing, the weak rusted metal giving out on its support and toppling down. Lance held his breath, hoping the sweet woman wasn’t too hurt but he saw the firefighter try to catch her barely, and escorted her away from the building after promising Lance she’d be back to help him out. Lance sighed but then realized his only way of escape was gone.

Gulping, Lance pulled his phone back out and texted Hunk again.

‘The fire escape broke. I’m trapped.’ Lance sent the message and began to pace as well as looking out the window hoping to attract someones attention.

                                                                                ____________________________

Keith stepped off the truck and grimaced seeing the amount of injured citizens and curious civilians lurking about.

This is what happens when you live in a small city, Keith grumbled to himself as he eyed the irritating spectators.

He hadn’t heard where the fire was, he had only been at home resting when he got the call and hurriedly sped to the station on his motorcycle, somehow managing to not crash into anyone. He had quickly pulled on his bunkers, and jacket, and equipment, listening to Shiro babble about the emergency.

Something about apartments and a fire?

Keith hadn’t paid any attention to the specific details about the incident so when they pulled up in front of Lance’s apartment building, it was obvious to say Keith was shocked as he stared at the frightening intensity of smoke and flames.

Please, please tell me Lance is okay, he thought desperately.

As he turned to actually start on his job and not stare like an incompetent asshole, he heard a loud, expressive meow and turned to see a familiar grey ball of fluff scatter to him and a cry of “Blue!” not long after. Keith gently bent down and scratched Blue behind her ears, which was turning into their thing apparently, and glanced up in time to see Pidge and Hunk approaching, rushing over and sighing in relief when they spotted Blue with Keith.

“Keith! Oh thank god you’re here, you’re finally here.” Hunk breathed, pausing to catch his breath.

“What are you guys doing here? You should be over there with the other civilians-“

“Shut up! There’s no time! Lance is in danger! Blue says Lance is still in the building!” Pidge yelled, pulling Keith down to their height.

“What? Wait, Blue spoke to you? Wait a minute..LANCE IS STILL IN THE BUILDING?!” Keith shrieked, drawing the attention of his coworkers and a few EMT's.

“Well, we suspect that he is judging by Blue’s spot on Lassie impression and also hes nowhere to be seen. We haven’t heard from him or seen him yet..wait never mind. Oh he says hes trapped in the building...GUYS HE’S TRAPPED IN THE BUILDING!” Hunk explained, his volume increasing before turning his phone around and showing the others the text he received. Pidge rolled their eyes giving Hunk an exasperated look while Keith just glared at the offending device reading the heart dropping message from his beloved. 

‘He could die, he's probably dying right now,’ Keith thought terror-stricken.

A sharp cry brought him out of his panic as he glanced up and spotted a familiar small mop of dark brown curls brushed past him in the arms of one of his coworkers. Keith’s eyes widened as he watched the child struggled in her arms and kept repeatedly screaming to help someone.

“We have to go back! My uncle is still in there!” he cried, tears streaking down his cheeks. Keith hurried to the little boys side feeling a small pang in his heart as the child brightened up when he saw Keith.

“Keith! It’s Uncle Lance! He’s still inside!” Manny choked as a few more tears streaked down his face. Keith nodded his head before kneeling down at Manny’s level and pulling him close, giving the child a hug. He looked like he needed it. Manny wrapped his small arms around Keith sniffling and blubbering into Keith’s jacket. Keith patted Manny a little on the back, hoping to calm him down somewhat and then asked if Manny had contacted his mom yet which he shook his head no and said the firefighter lady was going to talk to someone about it. Keith nodded his head, knowing Manny was taken care of and then turned to Hunk and Pidge.

“Can you guys stay with him? Keep an eye on Blue as well, I’m going to get Lance.” Keith stated firmly as he headed towards the truck to get his supplies. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t smile a little, as Manny cheered him on as well as Hunk.

Racing to the truck, Keith hurriedly pulled on his helmet with the visor blocking his face. He also grabbed his Personal Breathing Apparatus and strapped it to his back as well as a fire-axe and halligan bar. In case he needed them and it never hurt to be prepared for these situations.

Especially when its someone you love, whose life is at risk.

Keith determined, grabbed the rest of his gear and set toward the building, ignoring the sinking feeling in his gut which usually happens every time he entered a burning building.

                                                                        ______________________________

Lance stumbled through the door to his apartment, feeling like his breath was getting restricted. He had left Mrs. Nylund’s apartment after waving off a firefighter saying they’ll look for another way while the firefighter had gone to get help. Lance once again had pulled his shirt over his mouth and nose before taking off into the hall, having to practically crawl to duck under some of the heavy smoke that was almost black now and stung his eyes.

Lance breathed heavily, feeling his lungs were being restricted, like a hand was wrapped around them and squeezing till he felt tight in his chest area. Lance coughed a little and realized he needed to hurry out of there before the smoke really started getting to him. He was starting to feel..a little dizzy as well. Lance crawled his way over to the windows watching in dismay as the black smoke started to fill his apartment now, he could barely see his ceiling anymore.

Fucking building..and landlord, where was that asshat at anyways? Lance thought sullenly. He finally reached the windows and pulled himself up but stayed low, trying to open one. He put all his weight into lifting the window and with a final grunt managed to make the window pull up just a hair, making Lance groan as he slumped to the floor. All the damn windows were stuck, as if they had been glued shut themselves, Lance grunted thinking fast. He decided to try the bedroom window, knowing it was in a weird spot but hopefully there was something that could break his fall.

A loud bang pulled Lance from his thoughts as he jumped in the air a little and glanced back out in the hallway, having never really closed the door when he first entered. Lance paled as he noticed a light coming from the stairs out in the hall, realizing the fire would soon be upon him.

If he didn’t act fast, he was screwed.

Lance raced to the bedroom forgetting about the safety rules and regulations and flung the window open as fast as he could.

Looking around, there was nothing that Lance could grab onto and hoist himself down or could break his fall. Of course as fate would have it, there was nothing. His apartment was on the fourth floor, it was too damn high off the ground. Maybe if he was a floor below he could’ve made it, sprained ankle he’d take any day over dying in a fire, but there wasn’t any balconies or renegade bricks protruding from the building he could use to climb down. Even if he had the guts to jump out the window, he’d never survive that fall. He’d be flattened like a pancake and not the fun kind with chocolate chips and sprinkles that he made for Manny sometimes as well as Keith that one time. Lance sighed glancing at the crowd, he at first tried to see if he could possibly spot Manny or Keith once he saw a few firetrucks there, some firemen lingering around.

Lance sighed disappointed in his situation. He should’ve just left with Mrs. Nylund, better they both be alive and injured than one of them dying in a fire. He smiled a little to himself remembering Mrs. Nylund’s worried, grandma voice she used wanting Lance to go first. She had been worried for his safety even though Lance was more capable of getting himself out of sticky situations, since by now he can testify his entire life was one whole sticky situation. Lance trudged back into the living room which was filling up with more smoke and Lance ducked his head, trying to prolong the smoke inhalation as best he could, but as he felt his chest tightening and weak coughs becoming more prominent, he had a feeling it wouldn’t help much.

Full on coughing wracking his body now, Lance felt his head spinning and realized dully the carbon monoxide exposure was starting to get to him. Lance wondered how long it had been since he’d been there, turning his attention back to the window. Lance weakly started banging his fists against it, hoping it would catch someones attention.

“Please, someone, anyone help me,” Lance pleaded, his eyes sliding closed and hey when did he get on the floor?

Lance pulled his legs closer to his chest, holding them in as the smoke was now drifting to his level. The smoke almost made Lance feel like he was in some kind of dream. Lance leaned back his eyes barely slipping closed, wanting to hold out hope that someone would come for him soon but knew his chances of surviving were slim than someone rushing into a building and finding him. Just as he slumped over, he thought he saw a hulking mass figure shadowed against the smoke. He briefly panicked, as he thought it was the grim reaper come to take him away, but his eyes slid closed as the approaching figure crouched in front of him before everything went dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I now understand why authors like cliffhangers..they're fun...for me :).


	14. Can You Handle My Hose?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith goes in after Lance but will he make it in time?

The first floor of the building was filled with black smoke and the bright flames didn’t make it any easier to navigate through the collapsing remains of the ceiling and walls.

Keith glanced around slowly, the gear incredibly heavy and the smoke blocking his vision. He needed to get to the stairs and if he remembered from all the times he’d been at Lance’s place, he usually went to his left which is the direction he headed to now. The flames were eating up the whole place easily, cackling as if it thought the building was a complete joke and was just waiting all this time for the opportunity to devour it in smoke and ash. Looking around he could tell the first floor was a goner, he didn’t know how the fourth floor would look though…

Keith gazed around more, trying to focus through the smoke with only his helmet visor protecting his eyes as he tried to see and feel around for the stairs. The flames merely licked his body which was safely protected by his gear and when Keith managed to find the first step, he cautiously set one heavy booted foot on it, testing its steadiness before carefully making his way up the steps. He remembered about all the times he went up the stairs with ease, usually Lance in tow whether it was juts them hanging out together or after a beer down at the pub and Lance smoothly tugging him up the stairs for some late night action. Keith frowned, hoping those wouldn't be his only memories of Lance which spurred him to try to hurry his pace.

The heat was excruciating, Keith grit his teeth as sweat was already pouring down his back and face like a waterfall. He was grateful for his mask and gear that helped him take long relieving breaths as he hiked himself up the stairs. There were gaps in the walls and falling debris, something Keith took note of when and if he found Lance and brought him through here. Keith stepped around one huge hole in the stairs carefully trying to easily make his way going up. He used his axe to cut down a couple pieces of ceiling that were blocking his path then maneuvered himself around the pieces, choosing to save up his energy and not cut the remaining pieces. When he finished, he trudged on, kicking a couple pieces of debris out of way while he took the stairs slowly again.

To him it felt like hours before he reached the final step to the fourth floor but it had probably only been a couple of minutes. Keith tried not to cringe at all the protocols he was breaking by strutting in here with the heroics just to save one person, but this person was someone he deeply cared about, he wanted more days and nights with Lance, wanted to see his smiling face as he talked about his kids, his coworkers, something funny Pidge showed him, an incredible recipe Hunk taught him, and whenever he was playing with Manny or talked about his family. The smile he gave Keith after they kissed, and the grateful one he'll always remember when he pulled Manny down from the tree. All those different smiles, Keith ached to see again, and he was going to dammit.  

He had a fireproof blanket with him to wrap his boyfriend in, to protect him from the harsh flames, he could only hope Lance hadn’t died of asphyxiation yet…

With that dark thought, Keith hurried as fast as he could, with the heavy smoke in the air, and his heavy gear taking a toll on him, making it more difficult to move. There was only a little bit of flames eating up the walls, as well as Lance’s front door which happened to be opened a crack. Keith suppressed a sigh, exhaustion taking over. On one hand, it saved him time from busting down the door and using up his strength but on the other hand, Lance basically might as well have said, 'hey come on in here! I don't feel like living!' Once this was over, Keith was going to have a long lecture about fire safety and how to prevent smoke inhalation with Lance, once he's safe of course.

Keith approached the door, nerves hitting the roof by this point, as he thought about all the horrible scenarios that could happen. Lance could be missing and not be in his apartment at all or he could have already died of asphyxiation and was laying there lifeless for Keith to find. That thought scared Keith the most as he toed the door open more, hearing a dull thud as it collided with the wall and he entered the living room, looking around and ducking low to see if he could find any trace of his boyfriend. 

He explored all around the living room seeing furniture covered in soot and grimaced about the damage Lance would have to deal with, as well as technically being homeless now. The many fond memories Keith had of this place gone up in flames, well technically smoke since the flames hadn't reached this part yet, thank god. 

Keith kept looking around feeling anxiety take over him as he began to panic, till he looked in the direction of the windows that were always stuck and saw a slumped shape folded over itself. It had to be Lance. 

“Lance!” Keith cried, mix of relief and part scared. He hurried over as fast as he could with his damn gear slowing him down. He approached the figure and with little vision, could see Lance’s face covered in sweat and soot, and while his tan skin usually glowed, it wasn’t this time. Keith nearly shouted in fear when he noticed how pale the others skin was.

The real fear set in when Keith noticed Lance wasn’t breathing.

‘No…No, not him, please not him,’ Keith thought as he shook Lance roughly, hoping to get any kind of reaction. Lance merely flopped over in Keith's hold from the slight roughhousing Keith was giving him, making the fireman pause.

‘Come on Lance, stick with me please, if not, please stay for your family, your nephew, your friends, Blue…’

A brief, quiet cough broke Keith’s inner turmoil and he practically shouted in joy when Lance groaned lowly, turning towards Keith. He was alive! He needed medical attention right away, but he was alive for now!

Keith sprang into action then, pulling Lance up into a sitting position, resting him against the wall like how he found him, Keith pulling out the fire protective blanket and wrapping it around his boyfriends shoulders and upper torso, covering him up as much as he could. Of all the damn days for Lance to wear bootyshorts…

Once the fire blanket was secure around Lance, Keith easily, guided him into his arms for a fireman carry, which is against protocol as well, but Keith ran into the building alone, so he didn’t have anyone to help him, and using the ‘L’ carry wasn’t a good idea with how far from the ground they were. Plus, with Lance being practically half naked, dragging his boyfriend through the flames and debris didn’t sound like a hot idea. No pun intended.

Keith cradled Lance against his chest, tucking his legs towards him as much as he could before turning towards the front door and preparing to head back down the stairs. Keith covered Lance’s nose and mouth with the blanket, hoping to cut off the smoke exposure as he could while he made his way downstairs, going slower due to the added weight and trying to see where he was going. The blanket was all he had for protection and he idly hoped he wouldn’t smother Lance with it, accidentally killing your boyfriend while trying to save him would pretty much dampen anyones mood. The flames were framing the entire staircase now, Keith feeling like he was walking through some version of hell. Which to be honest, if Lance didn’t make it, this would be his hell.

Gritting his teeth as he spied the falling debris from earlier now blocking his path again, Keith kept his grip on Lance’s body, using his feet to kick some of the trash away while struggling to stay upright. Keith trudged through the flames, keeping his boyfriends body as close to his own as possible while the flames fought against his coat and boots, as if begging for the body in Keith’s arms like he was their next meal. He could faintly hear the sound of trucks and his coworkers yelling out instructions on what to do over the roar of the fire and could see faint red and blue lights flashing through the smoke. He was getting closer.

With just a few more steps to go, Keith jumped through the flames and smoke, landing perfectly on solid ground and dashed outside, Lance flopping uselessly against him, till they reached outside with smoke still lingering around as well as a few survivors being attended to by Keith’s coworkers.

They had made it.

Keith kept running though, even past his coworkers who had set up the firehose now and were beginning to aim at the bigger intenser flames to put those out. The smaller ones they’ll probably leave alone for now since the risk of a bigger fire could put other buildings in jeopardy if it spread out any further. Keith spotted Shiro who gave him and Lance a concerned glance but Keith ignored him in favor of taking Lance to the closest ambulance and medic as possible. Keith carefully laid Lance down on the asphalt while several medics gathered supplies and began to hook Lance up to the oxygen machine, beginning to pump oxygen into him. Keith watched, his eyebrows furrowed, pulling the mask over Lance and waited, hoping to see a spasm or jerk, some sign to tell him Lance was responding. Normally a paramedic would do this but Keith was too focused on saving his boyfriend's life, he was just ignoring all protocols today, and he had training to do this so..

“Keith!”

“Lance!”

Keith looked up seeing Hunk and Pidge rushing towards them, concerned glances at their friend passed out on the ground.

“Is he?” Hunk asked, his voice full of dread and fear while Pidge cupped a hand over their face partly, to hide their sadness, their small frame shaking slightly. Keith pulled off his helmet as he faced them before tracing a sweaty strand of hair on Lance’s face and tucking it behind his ear.

“I’m not sure. We’re trying to give him oxygen but I don’t think hes taking it.” Keith noted, frowning. While they had Lance hooked up to the oxygen tank, his chest wasn’t rising hardly, it was about maybe a minute of this that prompted Keith to rip the mask off and begin the resuscitating process with the help of one of the paramedics. A few paramedics swore at him, yelling about dying and ignoring protocol but he didn't care. All he cared about was seeing those blue eyes open and staring at him again. Thankfully the paramedic next to him didn't stop him only helped him out which Keith thanked them repeatedly but it was deaf to his own ears.

A small crowd had gathered around them by then, interested at seeing what caught the fireman's interest that had him dashing away from the burning building so hard. Some were gasping in shock and others waiting, hoping the unconscious male would open his eyes, give some sign of life but Keith continued to ignore them, even when the people started getting rambunctious to which Pidge and Hunk, bless them, started waving the people back, to give them room.

While the paramedic pumped Lance’s heart to get the blood flowing, Keith checked Lance’s other injuries, noting a few burns here and there, but thankfully they weren’t too terrible and could be easily treated. A wet gasp followed by coughing, pulled Keith’s attention back to Lance who was coughing as he struggled to breathe while another paramedic who had been hovering on standby immediately began hooking the oxygen mask around Lance to help him breathe better. Lance dazedly took a few breaths before laying back down on the asphalt exhausted till he opened his eyes, blearily staring up at the grey sky with figures looming over him, blurry expressions full of worry.

As his eyes, adjusted, he felt a warm hand caressing the side of his face, making him lean into the gentle touch before his vision started to clear somewhat, yet the details were still out of focus. He could however recognize the dark violet eyes that burned into his blue ones. They reminded him of the sky at night.

“..Keith?” Lance whispered shakily, his voice hoarse and nearly gone like he had been sick for weeks. He coughed a few times after which Keith merely nodded a few tears leaking from his eyes as Lance dimly saw his mouth form a smile.

“Yeah its me, don’t worry you’re safe now.” Keith replied smiling down at him in relief as Hunk and Pidge sighed and even whooped with joy. At the joyous noise, the small crowd even erupted in joy, despite some probably not knowing what was going on. One of the medics began preparing a stretcher to place Lance on for the ride to the hospital as he was definitely gonna need some time in the emergency room after this. Keith ignored everything else going around him as he clutched Lance's hand in his as he wept happy tears, which he would deny later if Lance teased him about it.

“You..came to..get..me?” Lance breathed sounding surprised a little but smiling towards Hunk and Pidge acknowledging their presence. He remembered he had no clue where Blue was and faintly hoped she hadn’t gone back into the building despite the fact she was a rather smart cat and wouldn’t do such a thing. He also wondered what happened to his nephew and looked around dazedly, seeing if he could recognize a mop of curly brown hair anywhere.

“Of course I did. I’m not letting my boyfriend die, I don’t plan on letting you go Lance McClain.” Keith stated firmly. He could see a few of his coworkers and some medics watching as he spilled his feelings but he didn’t care.

Lance reached up weakly bringing his hand to Keith’s cheek, Keith holding it there to support Lance, when Lance’s thumb brushed a little soot off Keith’s cheek. Keith leaned forward so he could hear his boyfriend better as Lance quietly whispered.

“You saved me…You’re my hero.” Lance replied softly as he gazed lovingly up at Keith. Keith leaned forward, pressing a long kiss to Lance’s forehead before the medics moved between them and began moving Lance to the stretcher, strapping him in as they wheeled the oxygen tank into the cart as well as him. Lance maintained eye contact with Keith the whole time, his adoring expression not once leaving his face. Keith waved bye to him, smiling like a dork as the doors finally closed, Hunk getting in as well to make sure his best bud was gonna be ok. Keith watched the ambulance take off with Lance safe inside and Keith sighed, feeling exhaustion finally catch up to him, making him nearly face plant into the ground.

“I can’t believe you seriously went in there! You just saved his life!” Pidge exclaimed. Keith turned to the smaller person and watched as Pidge gently pet Blue in their arms. He wasn’t sure when Blue got there but at least she was fine now, as well as her owner. Keith turned towards the still flaming building and nodded towards Pidge.

“I gotta finish this up but let me know how Lance is doing?” Keith asked. Pidge scoffed, raising an eyebrow in response.

“I’m pretty sure you’d make it there before me. I’m going to take Blue to my place for now and hope most of Lance’s things weren’t burned. He’s gonna be pissed when he realizes his seventy dollar skincare products were probably ruined.” Pidge stated and trotted away back into the crowd, leaving Keith to finally turn back to his job which he should have done after rescuing Lance anyways. Whoops.

As he helped his coworkers and a few paramedics with tending to the victims and putting out the small fires, the bigger fire had died down due to the smaller fires getting put out and taking away most of its ferocity. Manny had been tended to one of the paramedics and was also taken to the hospital where his mom would meet up with them there. With this knowledge, Keith focused on his job more than anything, trying not to let thoughts of Lance affect him anymore. He kept his grip on the firehose pretty tight as he watched the rest of the flames and smoke die down, hoping Lance would be okay when he went and saw him later, once he was finished here of course.   

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yea he saves him lol. I was not gonna have any character deaths on my watch, what kind of romcom would this be if I did? Just one more chapter left and then the epilogue. Which I still need to write...so that may take some time. In the meantime, enjoy some wonderful oneshots of this series!  
> http://archiveofourown.org/works/10669146/chapters/23616066


	15. The Fire Might Be Out But You’re Still Smoking Hot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance wakes up. Keith meets the parents.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finished the story! Expect the epilogue soon! Ya'll...I literally reread that thing over and over, I can't freakin believe I'm the one who wrote that sappy mess omg. Expect some hard core sugary fluff.

Bright lights blinded Lance when he first came to. 

Blinking, and raising his heavy hand to help block the lights, Lance squinted around the room, confused as he took in the pale blue walls and sounds of people and machinery running in the background. There was the sound of a television playing and when he glanced up he could hear the sounds of car motors running, race cars of different neon colors breezing by on a track. Something to do with Nascar then. Lance crinkled his nose, the only person he knew who would watch Nascar was his brother Emilio but he should be back at home with-

“Lancey-Lance! Ahhh thank fuck you’re awake lil bro. Starting to worry us all there.” Lance’s eyes widened as he glanced towards the small couch by the window where his older brother, Emilio or Leo was sitting, grinning at him. Lance sat up or tried to, but found he was still pretty weak and almost stumbled if another set of hands hadn’t caught him in time.

“Easy bro, you’re still pretty weak from the fire. Just take it easy, ok?” Lance squinted still unsure what was happening when a new face popped up and glanced down at him in worry.

"Does he look pale to you? I think he looks pale, maybe we should get the nurse."  

“Hunk?” Lance asked his voice hoarse and he cleared it a couple times, hoping that would help.

“Yeah buddy its me, everything’s alright now. Keith pulled you out of there just in time. Apparently, half of the second floor collapsed and if you had been in there any longer, you would’ve died of smoke inhalation.” Hunk described, Emilio scooting over towards them and listening as well. Lance blinked amazed.

“Wow so that wasn’t a dream then. How long have I been out?” Lance asked curious.

“About a day. Keith was here earlier but I convinced him to go home and shower because no offense towards him, but he needed it. Bad.” Hunk muttered grimly, making Lance chuckle then wince from how much that action hurt his throat.

“Good. His mullet’s greasy enough already.” He smiled, picturing Keith and how sexy he must’ve looked in his uniform. It’s too damn bad he couldn’t remember, dammit brain, Lance scolded. He turned back to Emilio who was texting someone apparently.

“Leo why are you here though? And how did you get here so fast?” Lance asked confused. Emilio smiled, putting his phone away, which was lighting up with messages.

“I just drove here on Christine lil bro. Mama called everyone after she found out what happened to you and dragged nearly half of us down here to see you. The others will be here at some point today or tomorrow and I think a couple of our aunts and uncles and cousins are coming when things are less crazy.” He explained, much to Lance’s horror.

“Oh damn it! I’m okay, I’m fine though, there was no sense in everyone coming all the way down here.” Lance argued. Leo shook his head and nodded his head towards the doorway where Lance could now hear frantic footsteps thundering towards the room.

“Like hell we wouldn’t all come see you. McClains stick together you know.” Leo flashed a smile as the door burst open and Lance nearly rolled his eyes at his mama’s appearance. She stood there in all her glorious five foot three stature, but her posture screamed attention immediately. Normally she bared a warm, welcoming exterior but this time the only expression she wore was sorrow.

“Lance, mijo!” She cried as she nearly flung herself towards Lance, squeezing him into her chest, crying with relief that ‘her precious baby boy was safe and alright’. Lance scoffed, rolling his eyes and trying to appear tough but secretly he was glad to be back in his mom's arms.

“Hi mom.” He whispered sheepishly. She merely kept hugging him and kissing his forehead, despite his inching away from her to stop. Hunk and Leo both sat back watching amusedly as Lance’s mom began muttering about how she never liked his apartment and always had a feeling deep inside her not to let Lance move in there.

“Honey if it was that bad why didn’t you say something?” She scolded, clearly done with the comforting part of her lecture. Lance shrugged, looking away guiltily as he scratched his neck.

“Well uhh, I needed some place close and it was the only place I could afford? And I didn’t want to burden you guys with my financial issues?” Lance’s mom stared him down, eyes studying his with a fierce gaze and Lance felt his resolve crumble.

“I was actively searching for another place, honest! Tell her Hunk!” Hunk held up his hands placatingly.

“Don’t bring me into this, but yeah Mrs. McClain, he was looking.” Hunk stated. This seemed to appease Mrs. McClain enough as she sighed and went back to hugging Lance again.

“Still, when I got that phone call, you cannot imagine the pain your father and I went through when we got the news mijo. We were so worried! You have a talent for finding trouble!” She gently scolded, ignoring Lance’s minor complaints and Leo’s snickering. The door opened again revealing a few more familiar faces.

Vanessa popped in, talking to someone on the other line of the phone in what Lance dubbed, her ‘lawyer voice’. She gave Lance a little wave, smiling gently, code for; she was happy hes alive and well. The other face, was someone he hadn’t seen since the summer, Lance’s little sister, and the youngest sibling of all of them, Josephine or Josie as they called her. She walked in, appearing bored and texting one of her teenage friends probably. She gave Lance a small wave of acknowledgement before planting herself on the small couch next to Leo who was now busy trying to wrestle the phone from her despite her protests.

The last person to walk in was Lance’s father. He strode in, dark suit and coat on, his salt and pepper hair, combed back and gelled neatly. His permanent scowl on his face like always until his cold, blue eyes glanced in Lance’s direction and he brightened up considerably.

“Lance! Mi hijo!” he cheered and hurried to the other side of Lance’s bed, opposite of his wife to give his son a bone crushing hug. Lance laughed, welcoming the hug but desperately pleaded his father to let up which he did, remembering his son was in the hospital for a reason.

“My hijo don’t ever scare me or your mother like that again. I nearly had a heart attack when I heard the news, your abuela would’ve had to shoot me in the chest to restart my heart, and an old man like me doesn’t need that kind of shock, do you hear me?” Lance’s father ranted, giving his son a gentle pat on the back which wasn’t so gentle. Lance nodded almost saluting his dad in the process.

“I know, I’m sorry you had to find out that way. Hey where is Mima anyways?” Lance asked peering around. With his parents around, his abuela was also usually around, hobbling after with her stern expression and cane. His father and mother both chuckled, sharing knowing glances.

“Most likely harassing the poor nurses about medications and the mole on her wrist. Either that or trying to trick the vending machine into giving up all the peanuts it has.” His dad smiled softly. Lance snorted a little, holding his stomach when the pain flared up. His parents both frowned in worry, his father nodding his head telling his wife and children to stay put as he left to go fetch a doctor.

Lance sighed, relaxing back into the pillows. He watched his mama talk quietly with Hunk and his siblings play catch up although Josie seemed to be more into her cell phone than talking to any of them, oh well. Just as he felt himself drift off again, a sudden thought popped into his head and he shot up, startling his best friend and mother.

“Hunk where’s Blue? What happened to her? Is she safe?” Lance fired question after question, biting his lip in worry only to be soothed back down by Hunk.

“Everything’s alright buddy, shes safe with Pidge. She ‘Lassie-d’ us to find you actually.” Hunk chuckled, Lance joining in as well before he grew panicked again.

“What about Mrs. Nylund? Is she ok? Where’s Manny at?” Lance glanced back at them confused. Vanessa popped her head up then, at the mention of her sons name.

“Manny is at home with Carlo’s mother. He’s safe and sound thanks to you Lance. He won’t stop asking about you though so I’ll have to bring him down sometime.” Vanessa smiled at him appreciatively. Lance smirked and wiggled his eyebrows.

“Guess this means Keith isn’t the only one whos good for a crisis situation.” Lance beamed proudly till Josie snickered, not looking up from her phone.

“In your case, you are the crisis situation.” Their siblings and Hunk burst into laughter, his mom even chuckling a little but lightly scolded Josie to be nice while Lance looked like he swallowed a lemon.

“Rude! Why must all my siblings roast me like this? I’m injured you can’t make fun of the injured!” Lance pouted. Hunk patted his back, hoping to make his best buddy feel better.

“Aw it’s ok buddy. If it makes you feel any better, Mrs. Nylund is okay thanks to you! She’s recovering and promises to send you more lemon squares as a thanks when she can. Also, Keith is stopping by in a bit.” Hunk wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Lance sighed relaxing back into the pillows and attempting to ignore his sibling's and mother's hounding questions about Keith. As Vanessa was going into detail about what Keith looked like to Emilio and their mom, Josie was off in her own little world, Lance interrupted here and there to tell them some things as well. Lance’s mom brightened up considerably, excited to meet the fireman who not only saved her son but is also currently dating him.

"I'm glad you're already seeing him, otherwise I would've tried to get his information for you." His mom teased while Lance groaned turning his head wishing he was better so he could check himself out and leave already.

                                                                                             _________________________

Keith rushed inside the hospital, only this time he was sweating way less and not covered in soot and grime. He made his way towards the elevators, flowers drooping in his firm grip. He cursed at his luck, wishing he hadn’t rushed here in a motorcycle with a flower bouquet. The girl at the shop said these were the best to get, some daisies mixed with morning glories that Keith noticed matched Lance’s blue eyes, and some white carnations. Keith had thought about getting some roses but the shopkeeper told him these would send a better message. He didn’t even know if Lance knew flowers had meanings. Oh well, he’s like ninety-eight percent sure Lance would like them. A small part of him also feared Lance would reject them.

The doors opened, revealing the floor Lance’s room was on and Keith stalked towards it, eager to see his boyfriend. Hunk had messaged him saying Lance was awake now which only encouraged Keith to hurry to his beloved’s bedside. His eyes only on the opened door, he was about to step towards the doorway when he crashed into a tall dark figure that was muttering Spanish into his phone.

“Shit! Im so sor…Um who the hell are you?” Keith’s apology died on his lips as he took in the appearance of the other man in front of him. He was pretty tall, about two inches taller than Keith, wearing an expensive suit underneath a long black wool trench coat. He had a neat, trim mustache that matched his salt and pepper hair that was combed back from his forehead. Keith felt waves of disapproval rolling off the man which made Keith tense up even more.

What was this guy doing outside Lance’s room? He dresses like hes on the Godfather…Is he from the Godfather? Why is the mob after Lance? Who wears this much black if they’re not some type of goth…oh maybe someone died. Oh yeah, he forgot he was in a hospital…

Keith must’ve looked terribly confused as the man stood tall, rising to his true height as he towered slightly over Keith.

“Who the hell am I? Who the hell are you? What kind of apology is that for interrupting a man minding his own business?” The man demanded in a soft but threatening tone of voice.

Keith had never been nervous around authority-like figures, but something about this man…unnerved Keith. Is Lance involved with the mob somehow or..maybe the landlord is and hes coming to ‘take care’ of Lance to get rid of any witnesses, Keith realized, narrowing his eyes in suspicion. The man raised an eyebrow impatiently while Keith took a few steps back, giving the man a challenging scowl.

“I’m Keith. I was just on my way to see my boyfriend so if you could just step aside, I’m sure we won’t have any trouble.” Keith narrowed his eyes as the man did the same. He noticed then the man had bright blue eyes that were cold and uninviting. They reminded Keith of the bitter cold of Antartica just by looking into them.

“Boyfriend? The only boy in that room is my son and if hes dating some knucklehead weirdo with a mullet then I’d advise you to leave…Mullet head.” The man threatened, leaning in close, Keith could trace smells of scotch, a strong woodsy cologne, and the musky smell of a cigar. The man continued to glare at Keith until a loud, “Papa! Who are you talking to out there?” interrupted his intimidating stare-off.

Keith nearly doubled over in shock as the cold, no-nonsense man before him spun around with a flourish, smile brightening on his face, his presence reeking of sunshine and rainbows all of a sudden, as he headed into Lance’s room.

“Coming hijo! Just talking to some foul-mouthed punk with no manners is all!” He called cheerfully. He turned and gave Keith one last glare that could've sent him to hell before walking in. Keith slowly edged into the room and stood gaping in the doorway as he watched this scary, fearsome man become a gentle, warm bear as he hugged Lance, who was giggling from the attention. The man, Keith now realizing to be Lance’s dad planted a small kiss on Lance’s forehead, despite his protests. Lance then noticed Keith in the doorway and pulled away from his dad’s hug to greet him.

“Keith! Come say hi!” He waved him inside, bringing everyones attention towards him, making him blush. He especially noticed the cold, blue eyes that stared him down again as he made his way gently into the room.

“Uh…Hi.” He greeted weakly, as he made his way to Lance’s bedside. Lance chuckled, noticing how awkward Keith felt.

“Keith these are my parents, Maritza and Edmundo McClain. The three stooges over there are Vanessa, who you’ve met already, Emilio my older brother, and Josie my youngest sister.” Each of the siblings gave Keith a small wave and knowing smirk when seeing the flowers, making him stutter out a hello to be polite. A pair of arms wrapped around his frame tightly, making him tense until he realized Lance’s mom was the person hugging him. The hug was warm and felt like home. Keith had no idea what to do except just let the woman continue to hug him.

“Thank you so much for saving my son Keith. You have me and my husbands eternal gratitude! I can’t tell you how grateful we are to you.” She leaned back to look at Keith, her eyes watering just a little as she beamed at him. Crap. Keith wasn’t good at this emotional bit.

“Um, you’re welcome I mean, I’m just as grateful that he made it honestly.” Keith coughed unsure. Lance’s mom laughed gently, patting Keith’s shoulder. Keith glanced to her and looked at Lance’s dad who was still giving him a hard stare down, although it was less intense than before. Keith caught Hunk’s gaze who seemed to understand the tension and hopped up from his seat.

“So how about we leave these two lovebirds to their privacy?”

“Hunk!”

“Okay okay, we’ll give you two some space. I’m leaving the door open a crack Lance.” His mother used her warning tone, ushering his complaining siblings out into the hall, Hunk trailing behind, giving Keith a thumbs up. Lance’s dad was the last to leave as he paused by Keith.

“Just remember I’m on the other side of this door. I don’t want to hear any funny business you hear me?” He pointed a finger at Keith’s chest, poking it lightly but held a strong meaning. Keith nodded, his mouth suddenly dry. The threat was kinda pointless since they already had countless encounters of them having ‘funny business’ but it probably wasn’t wise to tell Lance’s dad that. He gave Keith the ‘I’m watching you’ gesture as he slipped by the door, leaving it opened a crack. Keith sighed, already feeling weary but brightened when he faced Lance, awake and smiling, now waggling his eyebrows and patting the space next to him on the bed.

“So your dad huh?” Keith started. Lance nodded.

“Yeah..isn’t he the best? He and mom are the best parents in the world.” Lance sighed, not seeing Keith’s look of utter confusion.

“Well it’s only been less than thirty minutes and I’ve already pissed him off.” Keith stated. Lance frowned, his nose turning up in that adorable way Keith loved.

“What are you talking about? Dad’s literally a teddy bear.” Lance chuckled in disbelief.

More like a polar bear, Keith gaped at him, wondering how the hell Lance didn’t notice his father’s terrifying presence. The man could literally strike the fear of god just by giving him a glance.

“So what are those?” Lance pointed at the bouquet, bringing Keith’s attention back from his musings.

“Oh! I..got you some flowers. They got messed up along the ride though.” Keith offered them feeling lame for giving his boyfriend wilted flowers. Lance however, beamed at them and held them in his arms and lap, smelling them appreciatively.

“Heck nah! I love them! They’re beautiful and they have the most beautiful meanings.” Lance stated, slipping his hand into Keith’s, gently pulling him to sit beside Lance. Keith did so, flushing as Lance described every hidden flower meaning, understanding what each meant and giving Keith a shy smile as he pointed at the white carnations.

“These mean pure love right? And the morning glories mean affection.” Lance stated blushing up at Keith who nodded, blushing as well as he slid his fingers through Lance’s to thread them together.

“Y-yeah. The florist had to help me pick them out actually. Daisies traditionally mean cheerfulness which, I figured worked since you were stuck here. I would’ve brought some red roses but she told me they weren’t appropriate for the occasion.” Keith chuckled. Lance leaned forward kissing him gently.

“We can save the roses for another time, you charmer. Honestly, Smokey the Bear has nothing on you when it comes to romance.” Lance winked, pulling Keith closer onto the bed with him. Keith groaned as he wrapped his arms around Lance, allowing himself to be tucked against Lance.

“Lance that doesn’t make sense, Smokey’s about preventing wildfires where I jus-”

“Shhh, Keith, my hero, my mullet, just let me kiss you and appreciate you please. Can you do that for me?” Lance whispered, curling into Keith’s neck, relaxing into the warm embrace. Keith smiled as he turned to kiss Lance’s forehead.

“Yeah, yeah I can.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp! This is the end, thanks for reading and sticking along for the ride! Epilogue soon to be posted!


	16. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takes place one year after the last chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it! The final chapter! Enjoy! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

                                                                                         ~One Year Later~

 

Lance hummed joyfully as he packed his belongings for the day.

It had been a busy day, getting his class adjusted to starting school and each other but after a few weeks, the kids were getting the hang of things.

The kids this year were definitely not as rambunctious as his last years class, but every year he had to tell himself that as the weeks came by, the children would soon grow out of their shells. Plus, he still saw his children from last year, as many of them would often say hi to him in the halls and at the carpool. His kids from the previous years still said hey to him amazingly, and yes, he did beam with pride every time they shouted 'Mr. McClain!'. Of course, the best part of the day was he still got to see Manny everyday as well, often taking him home after school to his and Keith’s place till Vanessa picked him up like before.

It was nice and peaceful after everything that happened with the fire, which shockingly was revealed to be an accident with a meth lab discovered in one of the first floor apartments that explained why the landlord never rented out.

The police absolutely went nuts over that information.

After the fire incident, Lance and several of the other tenants living there, which thankfully everyone had gotten out alive, joined together and sued the landlord and even the government, for not upholding to fire and safety code, but also residential building codes and endangering the lives of everyone who lived there.

Lance of course, had the best representation for court, obviously his rad sister Vanessa, who also thankfully represented sweet Mrs. Nylund and a few other of Lance’s neighbors.

Long story short; they won their case and each of them had obtained about seventy grand for damages, in not only their property, but in emotional damages as well.

A fire marshall who had later searched the rest of the building, even discovered several other tenants windows that were inconveniently stuck like Lance’s. With all the incriminating evidence piled up, the landlord was sentenced to jail time, and Lance used the rest of his money to finally pay off his student loans and save up for a nice house, with Blue and apparently Red, the cute free loader. He eventually convinced Keith to move in after two months considering he practically lived there anyways. Neither of them had regretted it ever since. Well, except Keith, but that was only because Lance decided to play a prank on his boyfriend by plastic wrapping the toilet seat. Keith was not very amused the next morning before his six am shift.

Luckily, he got his revenge but as much as a hot head he can be, he was still a complete sap in Lance's opinion. Keith had visited him everyday during his recovery in the hospital, bringing more daisies and morning glories till his room was filled with the scent to rival a flower shop’s. Lance’s sisters were probably more jealous than relieved upon seeing all the flowers but whatever, they can suck it. This definitely puts Lance ahead of the ‘whos got the cutest spouse’ race. He had already proceeded to tell his siblings so in the group chat much to their protests and annoyance. 

It was true though, he did have the cutest boyfriend in the world. The weeks following the incident, with Lance temporarily staying with Hunk and Shay, Keith had visited him at school and interacted more with the children. One day during coloring time, Keith had actually participated, sitting with Manny’s group and colored for a solid thirty minutes. He wouldn’t let Lance see it until he was finished. Lance was lining the children up for recess when Keith walked up and presented him a picture of a bright red fire truck he had drawn from memory. Lance had chuckled and with the kids distracted, he sneakily kissed him.

Smiling to himself, Lance glanced over to his desk, seeing the firetruck picture framed on his desk as if he was a proud parent. It was one of the first things besides the flowers Keith had given him, so what if he wanted to treasure it? Of course, he could’ve laid off teasing Keith about it in front of their friends but then he wouldn’t be the loving endearing, asshole Keith had fallen for. Gotta keep the magic alive, right?

Well to be fair, they did that pretty well already, Lance thought, blushing at how Hunk and Shay practically murdered him from his late night 'talk sessions' with Keith when he was staying with them briefly.

Perhaps trying to initiate loud phone sex after he had been loudly bemoaning his darling Blue, who had been staying with Pidge temporarily till he moved out, wasn’t the best idea. Especially at three am after Hunk and Shay fell asleep…But he was sad dammit and Keith was just trying to cheer him up, and had just gotten off his shift, and imagining Keith sweaty was painting a nice picture in his mind so they needed that phone intimacy. Boy doggie, was Hunk not happy that morning.

Lance shook his head, realizing he was spacing out and fell back into his leisurely pace of packing his things away. He was still waiting for his nephew, where was that kid anyway? His thoughts occupied by Keith and all their wonderful adventures these past few months, with Keith tagging along to his crazy family events, nearly getting shot by his abuela by accident, handling the shovel talk from his siblings in good fun, and even warming up to his dad, who Keith claims “if he was a vampire, could suck out your soul dry with just one gaze from his cold eyes” but whatever. Lance scoffed, laughing at the image of his delightful father being threatening in any way.

At least he was getting along with them, which was a good sign. Manny had been a number one Keith fan since day one, even admitting to climbing the tree so his uncle would meet Keith. He and Keith had merely blushed while his knowing friends and family all chuckled and sent them amused smirks, adding to the spreading heat on his face. Lance was always a sucker for someone who liked spending time with his family and enjoyed being around their loud, boisterous selves without getting too emotionally drained afterwards. Lance, despite his obliviousness at times, had noticed how close Keith had gotten with his siblings, having attended Carmen’s undergrad graduation, Eddie’s art show, and hung out with his older siblings numerous times whenever Lance asked if he wanted to. Anybody who could tolerate his siblings was a god in Lance’s opinion. He told Keith as much, who just snorted and declared Lance would be a god as well with how amazing and kind he was, not to mention his god-like beauty to add which made Lance blush and gave Keith one amazing night of passion afterwards. 

Lance shook his head, remembering that night and wondering if Keith was possibly working tonight, for nonsexual reasons of course, ahem. He quickly finished packing his bag, still curious as to where Manny was, and was starting to sling it over his shoulder when a knock rapped on his door. Startled, Lance looked up confused, and called out to the mystery person.

“Come in?” He asked then groaned to himself for sounding unsure.

His groan turned into a gasp when Keith of all people popped his head in, opening the door and striding in. Lance grinned as he greeted his boyfriend right away, hugging him close and leaving a kiss on his cheek.

"Keith! What are you doing here?" Keith was grinning as well, and dressed in his casual clothes although they looked much nicer than his usual t-shirt and jeans combo.

"I was just in the neighborhood and couldn't stop thinking about you." Keith replied, there was a slight waver to his voice which confused Lance but he decided not to comment on it, knowing Keith could get snippy about certain things.

“Hey! I was just thinking about your mullet actually.” Lance winked, chuckling at Keith’s exasperated face. Just because Keith could get snippy didn't mean Lance would stop his teasing.

“Exactly how long are you going to keep calling my hair that? Until we’re both in our golden years?” Keith asked which Lance shook his head.

“Nah. I’ll be calling you baldy by that time! I have a bet with Pidge that you’ll be bald by the time we’re in our eighties.” Lance smirked, noticing Keith’s scowl.

“Oh like you’re gonna keep all your hair?” Keith challenged earning a mock gasp from Lance who then ran a hand through his brunette locks.

“Duh! I have my wonderful genes to thank for that! By the time, I’m eighty, I’ll look like I’m forty!” Lance declared earning an eye roll from Keith.

“And the mentality of a five year old still.” Keith grunted but smiled as his boyfriend gave him a look of mock outrage.

"How dare you! You wanna go?" Lance yelped, ready to toss his bag on the desk next to him when Keith caught the strap, laughing.

"I'm just kidding honey. I know you'll still be amazing in my eyes..no matter how old." Keith admitted. 

“Good! I knew you’d see reason one of these days, hehe. Oh! Let me show you one of the pictures one of the kids drew today!” Lance eagerly jumped towards his bag, quickly opening it and shuffling through papers. Keith waited by his side, knowing this was something Lance liked to do, show him the proud work his students did everyday which brought tears of joy to his eyes. Keith may have held on to a couple once or twice..

“Aha! Here it is!” Lance practically shoved a piece of colorful paper in front of Keith’s face, earning a noise of shock from the man. Keith took the paper, noting how excited Lance was and finally humored him, glancing over the drawing. His heart melted at the cute picture before him, drawing up a sappy smile on his face as Lance beamed and wrapped an arm around his waist.

It was a drawing obviously done in crayon, and a few squiggle lines in gel pen it seemed. There were two stick figures in the center holding hands with a blob of red by one figure and a square-ish shape with orange and yellow squiggles drawn all over it. Keith smiled at the two figures, recognizing them to be stick figures of him and Lance, seeing the obvious associated colors, blue with Lance and red for him. The huge smiles were drawn and practically floating off their faces and Keith could instantly recognize, one of the kids had drawn Keith saving Lance from the fire, the square-orange blob being the building and the red blob representing the firetruck. Keith knew Lance had happily told the story to his new kids, remaking it into a fairytale and leaving out the really dark bits. It was safe to assume one of the children had drawn them from that story and given it to Lance who was beaming so proudly, Keith felt his heart would burst in happiness.

“It’s cute. They captured our likenesses perfectly.” Keith stated, earning a small chuckle from Lance.

“I know right? The little girl who drew this was so shy giving this to me at first, I just about melted into the floor Keith! Melted!” Lance gasped, drooping an arm over his eyes in dramatic fashion with Keith snorting in response.

“What are you? The wicked teacher of the school?” Keith teased, receiving a shocked gasp and light smack on the shoulder which turned into Lance wrapping his arms around Keith and burying his face against his neck.

"Shut up Keith! Don’t be mean! We were having a moment!” Lance whined, making Keith giggle as he moved Lance’s chin up for him to press a kiss against the corner of Lance’s lips.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt our bonding moment.” Keith breathed as he pressed his forehead, against Lance’s. Lance pressed his back, kissing Keith back quickly before stepping away slightly.

“Let’s say we continue this bonding moment, I just have to get Manny, but once Vanessa picks him up, we should be good.” Lance stated, taking Keith’s hand and about to grab his bag and head out when he noticed Keith staying where he was, refusing to move. Lance paused, gazing back confused at Keith, who continued to stand there, looking at him with a loving expression stuck on his face.

“Um..Keith?” Lance asked unsure what was going on and grew even more confused when Keith took his hand and held it to his lips instead.

“Lance, I'm in love with you, you know that right?” Keith asked, although his question sounded more like a statement. Lance nodded, not sure where he was going with this, but he liked it so far.

“Yes of course. And I love you too.” Lance replied back, earning a small smile from Keith.

“Good..that’s good. That..makes this alot easier actually.” Keith breathed and before Lance could ask him what he meant, Keith sank down to one knee and Lance felt everything pause right there.

Keith smiled up at him, taking Lance’s other hand, which was easy since he was completely limp at that moment as his eyes shone with such a brightness, it reminded Lance of the stars Keith showed him on their first date that magical evening.

“Lance, I am hopelessly in love with you. I haven’t been this happy being with anybody by my side for a long time and didn’t think love was something I’d ever experience. But you came, crashing into my life like an ocean wave and I haven’t tried to swim away since. You light up my entire world everyday with how kind, funny, smart, and compassionate you are. I only hope I can make you as happy as you’ve made me this past year and I..I hope you’ll accept me as yours and want an amazing life that I know we can build for each other. So what I’m saying is..will you marry me?” Keith let go one of Lance’s limp hands for a moment as he withdrew a small box from his coat pocket. Lance watched stunned, a few tears trailing down his face as Keith flipped the box open and he saw a couple rings sitting inside, nestled in soft white satin. Lance looked at the sparkling silver rings, one with sapphires and the other had rubies, both sharing a small, but glittering diamond in the center.

Lance felt the tears making their way down his cheeks before glancing back at Keith and then the rings, feeling himself choke up from..all of this. He smiled, noticing Keith was growing a little hesitant as he continued to be silent but Lance smiled brightly and sniffled before he managed to speak.

“Yes…Yes! A million times yes! Oh Keith! I love you so much too! If I’m the ocean, you’re the flame that lights up the darkness and keeps it away. You’re so passionate about your beliefs. You’re strong, grounded, capable of love despite what you think, and a little weird. I’d be dumb not to marry you.” Lance grabbed Keith’s hands pulling him up as he spoke, his tears not stopping from trailing down his cheeks and he chuckled as Keith gently wiped some away with his thumb.

Keith grinned, his whole face lighting up and both men quickly embraced each other, hugging and kissing each other till they were both dizzy and nearly toppled over. Lance giggled, still feeling like he was experiencing a dream when Keith held out the ruby ring for him, which Lance held out his ring finger expectantly for Keith to slide on and did the same to Keith, putting the one with sapphires on him as well. With both their rings on, they glanced back at each other and kissed again, more gently and slower this time.

Just as things were getting a little more steamy, loud cheering broke them apart, jumping startled as they broke away slightly to face the opened doorway where Hunk, Pidge and Shiro were standing, Pidge even holding up their phone as if they were recording it, with Allura and Coran clapping in the background as well. Coran even tearing up a bit and repeating how beautiful they both were. Lance was a little surprised to see a few of his siblings there. Vanessa, Carmen, and Emilio all smiling and recording on their phones, no doubt sending it to the family, Emilio even shouting something about a live-stream. Of course, the little trouble-maker who started it all, Manny, was clapping and cheering with the others. Manny strode forward then, hurrying over to Lance to be picked up and hugged his uncle, even motioning to give Keith one as well. The three held tight to one another until Manny broke apart to lean back and give them both an excited expression that rivaled theirs combined.

“Does this mean Keith will finally be my uncle too?” He asked smiling which earned a few chuckles from the crowd. Keith and Lance looked at each other, smiling softly as they leaned against each other, knowing they had each other, forever.

“You bet he is.” Lance answered, not looking away from Keith’s adoring expression. Keith pecked Lance on the nose before ruffling Manny's hair, earning a half amused, protest from the kid. 

“Better late than never, right?”

 

                                                                                                 ~The End.~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow so where do I start? 
> 
> First, thank you thank you thank you, to everyone who read this fic, from beginning to end, whether you were along for the update ride, or just binged it all in one night, you stuck through it and that means alot to me! I also want to thank everyone who left me all those wonderful comments that made my days and nights just reading them! You guys don't know how much those simple comments or even just a word can brighten up a persons day! So once again thank you!! 
> 
> Second, even though this fic has ended, this is NOT the end of the Smokey the Bear universe. I WILL be adding oneshots as I go along, I have a bunch planned, some more wonderful surprises in store. Yes there will be more Manny, Keith interacting with small children, and voltron gang oneshots. Oh boy so many indeed. I would also like to extend an invite to the readers who have tumblrs to come shoot me a message for a possible prompt for this fic, I'm not confidant in my smut scenes yet so I will hold off on those cuz I'd be embarrassed reading my own nsfw stuff since Im already embarrassed by my sfw stuff. My tumblr is psychicscavenger. You don't have to follow me, my inbox is open! I also have a few other separate Klance aus I may begin to work on, some future projects atm.
> 
> Third, please tell me your favorite moments from the story below if you'd like! I'd love to hear what they were! Thanks again for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> Title credit goes to my friend! Hope you people liked this, if not, welp I'm sorry.¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


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